SPECIFICITY OF SOCIAL ADAPTATION AMONG UNIVERSITY TEACHERS OF PRE-RETIREMENT AGE

The article presents a sociological analysis of a topical research problem related to the study of the specifics of social adaptation of university teachers of pre-retirement age. We used a focused interview method (we used a quality strategy). The respondents were university professors aged from 58 to 64 years old (women and men, respectively, of pre-retirement age). The study has a goal to collect preliminary primary information on the problem of social adaptation of teachers of pre-retirement age working at universities. Respondents are much more worried about the difficulties of adapting to the status of a "teacher of pre-retirement age" than to the changes in their health status; the majority of respondents would like to continue their professional activities at retirement age. The potential for human resources development in the higher education system lies in successful social and professional adaptation and cooperation of teachers with different teaching experience.