Emeritus status
Emeritus status is granted upon the recommendation of Senate to retiring faculty members and librarians who hold ongoing positions and whose combined age plus years of service to the University equal 70 or more at the time of retirement or resignation, provided their Dean is in support of the status.
If you retire from UBC, Faculty Relations will work with your Dean’s Office to arrange for your name to be forwarded Senate for consideration for emeritus status. If you resign instead of retiring and wish to be considered for emeritus status, you should contact Faculty Relations at fr@exchange.ubc.ca to enquire about eligibility. Reviews for emeritus status are done twice per year and are normally forwarded to the May and December Senate meetings.
Once faculty members retire, their names are listed in the UBC Calendar:
- UBC Vancouver calendar (appendix 3 or C)
- UBC Okanagan calendar
Emeritus policies
For information on retirement please review the retirement planning page.
Privileges for Emeriti
Privileges available to emeriti are as follows:
Remaining engaged at UBC and insurance coverage
Upon retirement, Faculty Members may continue to engage with the University to further contribute to their disciplines, their departments and UBC as a whole. Often, these retired Faculty Members may be granted the status of Professors Emeriti if eligible. The conferral of emeritus status does not create nor govern the relationship between a retired Faculty Member and UBC. One of the implications of this being that without an actual appointment, the relationship would not be covered by UBC’s Liability Insurance Policy. This would create a risk exposure for both retired Faculty Members and UBC. Therefore, term appointments for Retired Faculty Members as Professor Emeriti will need to be processed by Departments if the emeriti will continue to perform work at UBC (paid or unpaid). As per Policy AP1 – Retired Faculty Appointments, Emeriti may be appointed salaried or unsalaried appointments.
If a retired Faculty Member with a non-remunerated appointment is making voluntary contributions to UBC and on its behalf, they will fall within the scope of UBC’s Liability Insurance Policy as a Volunteer Worker. In the Policy a Volunteer Worker is defined as follows: “Volunteer Worker shall mean any person appointed by UBC to perform duties pertaining to student-related activities or to perform duties on behalf of UBC including participation on UBC committees. The Volunteer Worker must be non-salaried but may receive remuneration in the form of an honorarium, stipend or reimbursement of expenses.” As a Volunteer Worker, the retired Faculty Member would be covered by UBC’s Liability Insurance, both general (while performing duties on behalf of UBC) and professional (with respect to work performed under direct or indirect control of UBC). To ensure that UBC’s Insurer will classify a Faculty Member as a Volunteer Worker, it is important that a retired Faculty Member’s appointment letter expressly states that the position is without salary or benefit and identifies their expected duties. WorkSafeBC insurance is not available for volunteers, however UBC has an optional AD&D insurance policy that will provide coverage. For more information regarding the volunteer AD&D Insurance Policy, please connect with Risk Management Services at: www.rms.ubc.ca/insurance/insurance-programs/volunteer-insurance/. Note that coverage must be arranged through the volunteers’ department administrator.
If a retired Faculty Member has a remunerated appointment and is providing services and contributions that are in substance of an employment nature, then they are not characterized as Volunteer Workers but rather are UBC employees. As an employee, a retired Faculty Member would be covered by UBC’s Liability Insurance Policy and WorkSafeBC in the same manner as all other UBC employees. For information regarding UBC’s liability insurance policies and scope of coverage, please visit: www.rms.ubc.ca/insurance.
Post-Retirement appointments
Retired faculty members (including tenure-stream faculty, librarians and program directors) can be re-hired as a new hire or into a post-retirement appointment under Policy AP1 – Retired Faculty Appointments.
Refer to the knowledge based article on faculty Post Retirement Appointments.