One of my Business School colleagues announced recently that he would be retiring, a few years ahead of the University's contractual retirement age, so that he and his wife could go to Africa to assist in the development of curricula, teaching methods, and learning resources in a college there that had links with his church. This is part of a trend that has begun to emerge in the industrialized countries. A colleague from my previous University, formerly an academic librarian in Africa, undertook after retiring several short assignments for an organization then known as BESO - British Executive Service Overseas - which recruited experienced people to undertake short missions to assist organizations in developing countries to address specific problems. After the collapse of the Soviet empire, a retired American acquaintance of East European origin returned on his own initiative to the country of his birth to assist in the modernization of the local School of Librarianship.
展开▼
