A non-residential alternative to off campus writers' retreats for academics

Changes in the higher education sector over the past decade have led to increasing demands on academics and resulted in increasing workloads, longer work hours and increased workplace stress. Declining government commitment to university funding has placed increasing pressure on academics to attract research funding and to publish. In addition, an individual academic's publication record is a core criterion for decisions regarding promotion and tenure at most universities. However, incentives to support and enable that writing to take place have been limited. A range of different interventions have been described in the literature to enhance research output and encourage academics to publish. However, many are expensive in terms of the financial and personal costs involved, when compared with the increased publication outputs. In this article the authors reflect on how their small university department facilitated on-site writing retreats that increased publication output, with minimal disruption and limited costs. They provide a reflective account of two such retreats conducted over a twelve-month period and make recommendations for other departments wishing to adopt a similar approach.