Higher education in retirement: The Institute for Retired Professionals

This paper indicates the failure of our society to educate its citizens in the "worthy" use of retirement leisure. It contends that educated retirees should be offered an opportunity to function in creative, dignified and self-directed roles on university campuses. It describes the program of the Institute for Retired Professionals at The New School for Social Research in New York City, which has been functioning since 1962 and now serves as a model for a growing number of university programs for retirees. At the IRP educated retirees have found a new way of spending their retirement years in dignified roles as teachers, leaders, administrators and participants in their own inner university.