This is a collection of sample retirement speeches for university professors who are retiring. We’ve included a variety of speech examples to help professors prepare their farewell speeches at their retirement ceremony.

Farewell speech for a university professor at retirement

Let me start by saying that I love you all, those of you who are here for my last time, because if there’s anything that lasts in a person’s life, it’s the relationships they have with people, and I am truly blessed to have so many of you here today.
In the 30 years that I’ve been teaching in university classrooms, many things have changed: people’s beliefs have changed, people’s bodies have gotten sick, society has been ugly and dizzying, and the only thing that hasn’t changed in all that time are the vibrant eyes of my students. In retrospect, my lectures have left a lot to be desired. It was the students’ sincere reflection and consideration that kept me from closing my lectures on old philosophies and classics. Now, my joints are failing me, and my longtime hobby, mountain climbing, is difficult. But what kept this old man going for three hours without a break was the look in my students’ eyes, who trusted me so much, that I was able to be more passionate than anyone else in the class.
I remember an exchange I had with my guru. I once asked him what the point of philosophy was in the face of the times, and whether it was just an escape in a noble disguise. He said to me sharply, “The times are what they are because there is no philosophy, so while you’re complaining, start building a philosophy to lead the times!” With those words, I was able to stay on one path through a time of darkness and confusion.
Like my teacher, could I have given someone a word that would set them straight? To my great shame, I have learned so much. It was here that I gained the enthusiasm of young people and learned the joy of teaching.
Today I give up my chair of shame. A professor is a different place from a teacher: a place where you can have sharp discussions with your students, a place where you can hang out with them as friends, where you can struggle together and go through things together. I wish the other professors who remain on campus many more years of teaching and learning from their students.
My favorite place on this campus was the avenue of ginkgo trees that lined the back entrance. As the citron-colored leaves fall one by one, I leave the place where I have spent half my life. Today the old me leaves, but I hope the young ones stay and become intellectuals with free hearts. I wish you all a bright future ahead of you, and I will now conclude my remarks.

University professor’s heartfelt retirement message

Good morning, everyone. It’s been over 20 years, but fall is unusually beautiful here on campus. As the twenty-five-year-old ginkgo trees light up the campus with their brilliant colors, I am saying goodbye to you. I want to begin by expressing my deepest gratitude to all of you for being with me as I take the honorable step of retiring.
In retrospect, my life has been spent trying to live up to those words: the true nature of intellect is not the selfishness of locking oneself away in an ivory tower to pursue knowledge. As college students, you are clearly the chosen ones, the privileged ones. I believe that college is only meaningful when you practice and share what you have learned.
Now my time is coming to an end, and I am like the setting sun. It’s a sunset that’s hanging at the foot of the mountain, waiting for darkness to fall. But you are the midday sun, shining brightly and illuminating the world. Your time is golden, and it is not yours alone, for those of you who are called college students have a heavy responsibility to lead society and to stand up against what is wrong, or else universities will cease to be nurseries of the intellect and become mere halls of illusion or career academies. I urge you to illuminate the world with the light you have.
Today, as I leave this university, the place where I have spent most of my life, the place where my life began and ended, I am able to return home because of you, young people. I implore you not to turn a blind eye to the injustice and despair in the world, but to use your voices to change it. May you be a living intellect, a practicing intellect, with a hot heart and a cool head. I pray that your future, young people, will be one of social action.
Whenever autumn comes, I will remember the breeze of the campus that used to ruffle my lapels, and my head will inevitably turn in the direction of the school. The loneliness of farewell will sometimes overtake me, but now I will watch over you from my place with a full and happy heart. Thank you for the undeserved love and respect you have given me. I end my thanks by borrowing from Aldous Huxley’s words that the great goal of life is not knowledge, but action. Thank you.

Humanities Professor Candid Farewell

Few professors will ever have a final retirement day as happy as mine. On this campus that I have come to love so dearly, I have the good fortune to bid farewell to my teaching career in the presence of those of you who have watched over me with infinite respect and affection.
As I look back over the years, I realize that my academic accomplishments pale into insignificance. I have given my best to my scholarly endeavors during my tenure, but I am far from perfect, far from following in the footsteps of those who have gone before me, and I remain a tiny, tenuous senior as I leave you today.
To those of you who will pick up the academic torch where I leave off, I have one request. We are labeled as humanities people, but we must not forget that the discipline itself has no boundaries or walls. That’s the trap that humanities people like us can fall into. We build our own ivory towers and become complacent and disconnected from the world.
I, for one, have been guilty of being a frog in a well, clinging to my world and my ideas and not engaging with the wider world. In today’s 21st century, we need more interdisciplinary exchange and convergence. Today’s cultural contents are not made by a single background discipline, but by a mixture of various disciplines, so I ask you to avoid the same foolishness as I did, and expand the horizons of your discipline rather than building exclusive walls. I look forward to seeing you step outside of your own boundaries and push the boundaries of the humanities to greater heights. I hope that the humanities, which are currently marginalized and discriminated against, will gain public attention so that they can fulfill their original purpose of uplifting the human spirit. As the humanities grow in the public eye, I hope that you will use your abilities to do so. I am confident that you, who have studied under poor and inadequate teachers, will achieve academic achievements that I have not been able to achieve. I will remember the love and support you have given me over the years. The steps I am leaving are not heavy because of you, thank you.

Literature Professor Wonderful Retirement Speech

For me, our time together at the school has been a great honor. Thank you all for attending my retirement ceremony. I am overwhelmed to be here, and I would like to thank you for all the support you have given me over the years. I am honored that I was able to serve as a professor for 19 years at ○○ Women’s College, a century-old institution, and that I was also able to take on the enormous responsibility of acting president for nine months. On the one hand, I feel honored, but on the other hand, I am also sorry that I may have done the school a disservice.
I’m sure anyone would be overwhelmed with emotion at a retirement ceremony, but for me, there is a particular part of my college experience that stands out. I dreamed of going to college back then. I passed the high school entrance examination for both a practical high school and a liberal arts high school, and I had to choose which one to enroll in. I wanted to go to a liberal arts high school, and my parents recommended a practical high school. At that time, the entrance fee for both schools was the same, but I insisted on the liberal arts high school, so my parents arranged the tuition and told me to make my own choice. The banks that accepted tuition were standard chartered bank and city bank, and they were across the street from each other. I hesitated for 2-3 hours with my tuition money and finally enrolled in a vocational high school. I gave up on college, and I can still feel the bleakness of that time. my desire and longing to go to college was absolute. but now that I have become a professor in such a college, and even the acting president, it is a realization of a very difficult dream. in that respect, I am very happy that I have been able to serve this college, and I believe that the realization of that dream has been possible with your help. in that respect, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of my fellow professors, administrators, teaching assistants, and students.
Now, I will spend the rest of my life trying to write a good novel, and I will take pleasure in watching our university stabilize and develop. Some of the turmoil in the school is something that any university goes through in its development, so I am not disappointed, and as a member of the university, I look forward to its progress. So, gentlemen, be well, and may God bless you and your families. Thank you very much.

Professor Retirement Sad Farewell Message

Good afternoon, everyone, this is Professor ○○○. There are more of you here today than I expected, and I’m grateful for that, but I’m also sorry that I’ve taken up so much of your time. I’m glad to see so many of our students in attendance. How are you doing with the year coming to a close? Are you enjoying the deepening fall season on campus? Or are you so busy with career preparation and assignments that you don’t even realize fall is flying by outside your window? Either way, I hope you’re not making choices that you’ll regret in the future.
Ever since I was in school, there’s something I’ve always kept in mind. “What’s most important to me right now?” and ‘How do I prioritize what I do?’ I’ve always had this in the back of my mind and would pull it out whenever I was feeling sluggish or lost, and at the center of it all was the idea of valuing the present and hating regrets.
I’ve been teaching for 24 years now, since I first stepped into the classroom as an instructor in 1999. I’ve studied a lot of material, and I’ve been able to publish some pretty respectable papers in the academic world. And I’ve met a lot of students, taught them, and watched them grow and leave.
What’s the most important thing in life? When I was younger, the most important thing to me was honor and success. I worked around the clock to achieve academic success, and I still have no regrets about that. I didn’t care about tomorrow. When the moment came to leave the classroom, I saw my students. I still remember the first time I met them, shyly, in March, and how they walked around the campus full of energy. I can see them all in my mind’s eye, from the shy March day when I met them to the proud look on their faces as they approached graduation.
Dear students. Cherish the present. The time you are passing through right now is a gift, a golden age that will never come again in your life. If you’re not happy today, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be happy tomorrow. I’m not asking you to live a one-day life or indulge in hedonism that brings temporary pleasure. I’m asking you to make today a little happier, a little more worthwhile, something that someone who died yesterday longed for. Remember that every day you spend doing your best to be happy will add up to your life tomorrow, your future. I would like to conclude my remarks by asking you to keep in mind that life is shorter than you can imagine to spend it with regrets. In closing, I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here today. To the President, to my fellow faculty, to our staff, and to our beloved students, thank you again from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

University President’s Farewell Address to Retiring Professors

Good afternoon, as summer, the season of youth, draws to a close and all things green take on the glow of decay, I stand here today to say a sad farewell. Today is the day that professors who have protected our school will leave the classroom.
I would like to begin by bowing my head in deep gratitude to the professors who have reached the end of their academic careers. You have cultivated a fountain of intellect in an otherwise barren academic landscape. As an academic, I salute you for never despairing or giving up in the face of the turbulence of the times. Your time is what has made our university what it is today. The sweat and hard work you have put in has made this university a prestigious institution, a true hall of learning, a place for the highest level of intellect, and I know that it is because of great professors like you who have been mentors to our students. Now, I know that you will not leave school, but I also know that you will not isolate yourself from your studies outside of school. All of you on the podium are true scholars who were teachers before they were academics. I am sure we will see many familiar names in your papers and scholarly activities. I also ask you to help and teach us as advisors to the current faculty. I trust that you will whip up the next generation of students who still have a lot to learn and a lot to improve.
Last is a word that is sometimes accompanied by great sadness. Some endings are shameful and dishonorable. But your last today is a beautiful and dazzling one. It is a glorious and honorable one, the kind that anyone who stands in a pulpit dreams of. Having spent a lifetime in the pulpit, you are the envy and admiration of those who will come after you. I hope you can take pride in your past and in every moment of your life with this university. I wish you beauty in every moment of your life, in your scholarship, and in your work. I feel very honored to have been in the same room with you, in the same era with you.
Thank you for all the teaching moments you’ve given us. Parting is always hard, but I know this is not the end, so instead of wishing you goodbye today, I want to wish you all the best for the next chapter of your academic careers. In closing, I would like to conclude my remarks by once again expressing my sincere respect for you, and thank you for listening.

Retirement Remarks from a Medical School Professor

How are you? It’s 2024, and it’s already February, and the rain that always heralds spring is falling silently. It seems that the boring winter that never seemed to end has finally given way to spring. Time is a funny thing. When you’re conscious of it, it flies by slowly, but when you’re not, it seems like it’s been forever. Before I know it, winter is coming to an end and January is almost over. Once this spring rain stops, the ground will soften and the trees will turn green. Our clothes will be much lighter and our hearts will feel much warmer. I can’t wait for spring to come and lighten my heart and body.
Today I’m going to make a new beginning. Retirement age is a strange thing: it seems to stand still, or go backwards, or go fast. I never thought I’d reach retirement age, but here I am, and I’m so grateful for all the years I’ve been here. Now that it’s time for me to retire, I couldn’t be more grateful. I’m going to finish strong, and I’m going to start strong, because you’ve worked so hard to get me here. From now on, I’m going to be a free spirit, and I’m going to enjoy my afternoons in peace. I’m going to die doing what I want to do, as long as I don’t get sick, which is what I’ve always done. I’ve spent my life using my hands to fix what God created, and now that I’m of retirement age, I’m going to spend my life creating with them. I’m going to work harder and get myself to a level where I’m satisfied. I’m a terribly lazy person, but if time permits, I’m going to pick up the many hobbies I’ve given up on learning.
One more thing: society is changing at a rapid pace these days. Money, looks, body, and other things are being valued above all else. But in order to be a mature society, we also need to have individuals or groups of people who have good spirit, intelligence, and values. I would like to ask one of us to play the role of a keeper, and I will say my last words here, thank you.

Professor of Neurosurgery, College of Neurosurgery

Good morning, everyone. How time flies. It seems like just yesterday that this year started and we’re already racing toward the midpoint. I’ve been running so hard that the weather is getting hotter and hotter. It feels like we need to cool off, but the heavens don’t seem to want to give us any rain, even though it would be a welcome relief in this scorching heat. They say the hottest months are July and August, and we’re stuck in July, the beginning. It’s not the end of the heat, it’s the beginning, and that should make us all the more determined to get ready for summer.
This is about five years ago. My birthday is in December, and it was a bicentennial year. It’s already terrible enough that it’s my birthday, but they were going to give me a classroom celebration. We argued about it, but eventually we agreed that it would be like a classroom reunion, and I remember what I said. “That was the morning,” I told you, ‘and after today, I’m going to live a life of peaceful afternoons.’ Unfortunately, winter afternoons are short indeed. It seems like it’s dusk, but it’s been five years and I’ve reached retirement age. It’s a strange thing, this retirement age. It’s been a long time, with time standing still, going backwards, and going fast.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me this opportunity to do nothing but stay put, and even more thank you for giving me this opportunity to do it in this small way. For a wanderlusting, lazy guy like me, 22 years is not a long time, but I’ve lived a hard life, and I’ve been pretty lucky, too, and some of my favorite times have been in the operating room. You may not have noticed, but there have been several times during surgery when I’ve been unable to breathe for more than about a minute and have been fiddling with my hands and stones. Also, patients who are still alive and well after surgery give me pleasure. I’ve also made some good students. Most of all, it is because of you, the people in this room, that I have made it to retirement age in one piece. I am very grateful to you.
I lived a happy life, because I loved the people around me, and I will continue to do so. I wish you all good health and happiness every day of your lives, and please continue to grow your faculty to the point where I can proudly say that I was a professor of neurosurgery at ○○ University Hospital. Thank you.