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Can I get a job at a university?
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forest1979



Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 507
Location: SE Asia

PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 5:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What was the salary?
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Shimokitazawa



Joined: 16 Aug 2009
Posts: 458
Location: Saigon, Vietnam

PostPosted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

forest1979 wrote:
What was the salary?


I'm paraphrasing, but the posting mentioned that salary was "as per university regulations". Don't remember the exact phrasing of it but didn't mention a specific salary.

I know other Special Project / Staff Instructors at a couple of different campuses in Taipei who earn ~ NT $60, 000 to NT $65, 000 a month, so maybe it's in line with those positions.
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markcmc



Joined: 18 Jan 2010
Posts: 262
Location: Taiwan

PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

forest1979 wrote:
There's a very important point to make too about perception of teaching English in Chinese (or Japanese).

True, there's the view the students wont understand as well if you teach exclusively in English.

But in Taiwan, at least amongst Taiwanese uni staff, there is a fear of student evaluations, and so a constant need to please students so that they wont grade the teacher poorly in end of course evaluations.

Consequently the quality of English that gets taught is compromised so that students can be 'happy' and 'enjoy' their classes. Likewise any student tests are made so easy that grades given out are always very high even though language standards are very low.

Hence when universities have tried to implement tests from TOEIC and the like, i.e. tests non-locally written and of an internationally recognised standards, student grades are appalling low. I know one university that wanted to introduce a TOEIC test for its students but the pilot scheme grades were so low it would have been an embarressment to that institution. Hence the scheme was scrapped and it stuck with its self-administered English tests, i.e. giving 90 points out of 100 for more or less nothing.


You make many good points here. The student evaluation system affects grades given - and is a lazy (and cheap) way for the universities to evaluate their staff. Not only are tests sometimes made easy, but in all the universities I've worked at in Taiwan, 20% of the final grade is for attendance and homework. This means that a student who shows up to class, and makes some attempt at homework, can pass even if they can hardly speak English.

I've also been asked to do strange things - strange in my opinion - like "negotiate the grades with the students" or automatically add 20% to the final grade for students with 'learning difficulties.' So far I've not gone along with these practices.
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Shimokitazawa



Joined: 16 Aug 2009
Posts: 458
Location: Saigon, Vietnam

PostPosted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

markcmc wrote:
forest1979 wrote:
There's a very important point to make too about perception of teaching English in Chinese (or Japanese).

True, there's the view the students wont understand as well if you teach exclusively in English.

But in Taiwan, at least amongst Taiwanese uni staff, there is a fear of student evaluations, and so a constant need to please students so that they wont grade the teacher poorly in end of course evaluations.

Consequently the quality of English that gets taught is compromised so that students can be 'happy' and 'enjoy' their classes. Likewise any student tests are made so easy that grades given out are always very high even though language standards are very low.

Hence when universities have tried to implement tests from TOEIC and the like, i.e. tests non-locally written and of an internationally recognised standards, student grades are appalling low. I know one university that wanted to introduce a TOEIC test for its students but the pilot scheme grades were so low it would have been an embarressment to that institution. Hence the scheme was scrapped and it stuck with its self-administered English tests, i.e. giving 90 points out of 100 for more or less nothing.


You make many good points here. The student evaluation system affects grades given - and is a lazy (and cheap) way for the universities to evaluate their staff. Not only are tests sometimes made easy, but in all the universities I've worked at in Taiwan, 20% of the final grade is for attendance and homework. This means that a student who shows up to class, and makes some attempt at homework, can pass even if they can hardly speak English.

I've also been asked to do strange things - strange in my opinion - like "negotiate the grades with the students" or automatically add 20% to the final grade for students with 'learning difficulties.' So far I've not gone along with these practices.


That's really interesting, Marc. Appalling, but interesting to hear that university admins. are asking teachers to do such things with their grades. Terrible.

Students probably are also aware of this fact and expect the teacher to fall in line when, in fact, it should be the other way around. Who manages the class - the students or the teachers - aha!! Very Happy
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romanworld



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 388

PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

romanworld wrote:
All I'm trying to illustrate here is that promotional prospects within academia in Taiwan are limited for foreigners, even though the Law of Taiwan does actually allow foreigners to become a President of a University. Like so much in Taiwan, there is a yawning gap between what the Law says and what is done in practice. All window dressing if you ask me . . .


Here's an interesting online story about a foreigner from Dominica who has just been appointed chairman of the NPUST's Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) in southern Taiwan. Apparently it's a first.

http://www.cakafete.com/up-to-date-news/651-dominican-scholar-heads-taiwanese-university-faculty.html

At first I thought the appointment could be political, a part of Taiwan's 'checkbook diplomacy', but I discovered that Dominica severed relations with Taiwan back in 2004:

http://www.thedominican.net/articles/dachina.htm
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Shimokitazawa



Joined: 16 Aug 2009
Posts: 458
Location: Saigon, Vietnam

PostPosted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

romanworld wrote:
Here's an interesting online story about a foreigner from Dominica who has just been appointed chairman of the NPUST's Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) in southern Taiwan.

Apparently it's a first.


Romanword, interesting point. It is rare, but it seems to me that it's not a really first. It may be a first for that Department or that school or in that particular field, but I've known of other foreign scholars who have been appointed Chairs of Language Dept.s in Taiwan (eg, National Tsing Hua University and Fu Jen Catholic University).

There are others I believe, but I just can't think of the schools at the moment. Not people I know personally mind you, but foreign professors who I've seen presenting at conferences.
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romanworld



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 388

PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

forest1979 wrote:
What was the salary?


My Taiwanese friend has just sent me an article from the Apple Daily about comparative salaries for professors in different Asian countries. Here's the lowdown:

. . . monthly salaries for Professors in the USA are about NTD$ 220K, in the UK about NTD$ 300K, in Japan 240K, Hong Kong 260K, and at the bottom is Taiwan at only 90K-100K.

The article can be found here:

http://tw.nextmedia.com/applenews/article/art_id/33447049/IssueID/20110609

Is it really worth investing all that money, time and anxiety in getting a Ph.d to earn a measly NT$90K a month, or $US3,112 at current exchange rates.(The British pound equivalent is around �1, 942.)


Last edited by romanworld on Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:17 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Taylor



Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 384
Location: Texas/Taiwan

PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 3:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Uhh....that's not 90K (USD) per year. It's 90K TWD per month. That's 36K USD per year---compared to an average 88K for professors in the US. However, 55K USD per year is more like it for English or Linguistics professors at universities in the US. Accounting/MIS/Engineering professors generally make over 100K USD per year at universities in the US.
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forest1979



Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 507
Location: SE Asia

PostPosted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Profs in other parts of the world earn far more than in TW because, for example, they are given housing allowances, contract completion bonuses, etc.

Another important point is not only $s in terms of income but $s brought into universities by external research grants. I bet in TW average research grants won are lower. In fact ratio of publications to Profs is also lower
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romanworld



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 388

PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 10:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

forest1979 wrote:
Profs in other parts of the world earn far more than in TW because, for example, they are given housing allowances, contract completion bonuses, etc.

Another important point is not only $s in terms of income but $s brought into universities by external research grants. I bet in TW average research grants won are lower. In fact ratio of publications to Profs is also lower


Yes, but some in Taiwan still want to deny the fact that "Taiwanese professors seem to get a relatively raw deal, at least in terms of the salary figures". Take a look at this editorial from the Taipei Times:

http://taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2011/06/29/2003506942

Obviously this writer isn't a trained mathematician. He's got his sums terribly wrong on this one.
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romanworld



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 388

PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Shimokitazawa wrote:
It makes perfect business sense for university administrators in Taiwan to bring in the once-barred-from-Taiwan Chinese students. Now they see Chinese students as dollar signs. Funny how the tables have turned.


Well, the initial idea was to bring in Chinese students to compensate for the declining birth rate in Taiwan. However, recent stats suggest that the Ministry of Education got it predictions very wrong. Earlier, "the Ministry gave a greenlight to Taiwan's higher education institutes to recruit a total of 2,141 students from China to study in undergraduate and postgrad programs this year. (This) number is roughly 1 percent of the local students in Taiwan's university system per year. Local institutes accepted 1,263 Chinese students for this fall's intake, but only 975 will actually enroll, marking a fulfillment rate of just 45.5 percent . . . "

The story can be found here:

http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aEDU&TNo=&ID=201107070021

This is indeed bad news for the tertiary sector in Taiwan, especially for some universities such as Ming Chuan University who have invested heavily in the concept of an International College to generate more foreign student fees in order to keep their financial head above water.
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forest1979



Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 507
Location: SE Asia

PostPosted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I dont see the relevance of MCU's International College to the registration of Chinese students.

The whole point of the International College, as I understand it, was to give an education in Taiwan exclusively in English, not only to Taiwanese students good enough/ambitious enough to study in English/acquire a degree fully in English, but also to bring in students from the dwindling number of nations Taiwan has official political relations with. Oh, and where possible, Chinese speakers from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Mongolia, or students born and raised elsewhere, e.g. Russia.

IC has zero to do with students in China. It is not orientated at all in that way. If anything MCU has gone in the oposite direction: to offers a degree exclusively in English via its IC, and also has international students learning Chinese as a second language. The whole point of the IC, in the MCU mindset, is to compete with US universities, to in effect over a US-esque education in Taiwan, and so with accreditation market itself to US students. It is the attracting of North American students rather than ones from the CHinese Mainland that will determine MCU's success/longevity. THis is why MCU so aggressively sought accrediation, has so many official links with universities in Asia (e.g. S Korea) and the US.
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romanworld



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 388

PostPosted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

forest1979 wrote:
I dont see the relevance of MCU's International College to the registration of Chinese students.


The relevance, as you yourself have noted in previous postings, is to compensate for the falling birth rate. Ming Chuan University to their credit saw the writing on the wall years ago and began preparing for the shortfall in local Taiwanese students by creating a campus on Kinmen Island, which targeted students from Mainland China. According to the China Post, 2009, Ming Chuan was a ground-breaker in this area:

A Taipei university last week broke ground for a project to build a campus on the outlying island county of Kinmen, targeting students from China, a report said.

Ming Chuan University began construction for the project on a plot of land it purchased 10 years ago in Kinmen, a county much closer to China's southeastern coast than to Taiwan.

The head of the university, Lee Chuan, said the education ministry approved the Kinmen campus project in 1998, a year before it bought the 15-hectare plot. Ming Chuan has been borrowing facilities from local schools to run graduate programs in Kinmen since the ministry approved the new campus project.

So far 214 students have graduated, and 84 are currently in masters' programs, the CNA said.

Lee said the ministry is planning to allow Taiwan universities to run adult education programs for non-Taiwan residents, meaning Chinese students can be recruited.


http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news8475.html

The tradition of recruiting Chinese students, along with other nationalities, continues to this day with their International College.
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forest1979



Joined: 10 Jun 2007
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Location: SE Asia

PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry. I completely disagree.

Anyone in their right mind will know that any English speaking Mainland student is not going to go to MCU to get a degree. They will go to Europe, the US, or will stay in China as together those three places have more than an ample number of institutions to cope with demands for education in English, and have more marketability for the student seeking employment after graduation.

The IC was designed to take students from Chinese communities in places such as Malaysia, Indonesia, etc., as well as take English speaking students from various other countries as I have indicated before. The IC was composed at a time when the Taiwan government paid nice subsidies to universities taking on foreign students, and was utilized by MCU to capture that market share. In this regards it has been very, very successful: MCU has more international students than Tai Da.

The IC is NOT designed for the purpose of bringing in Mainland students because the IC cannot compete in that market place. If MCU wants Chinese students then it will try to draw them into its existing Chinese-language driven courses, just as other universities have tried to do. Furthermore, as I have indicated as well, it's Chinese courses have been used to advertise the university in North America to students wishing to embrace Chinese as a second language. The IC has nothing to do with this.
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romanworld



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 388

PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

forest1979 wrote:
Sorry. I completely disagree.

Anyone in their right mind will know that any English speaking Mainland student is not going to go to MCU to get a degree. They will go to Europe, the US, or will stay in China as together those three places have more than an ample number of institutions to cope with demands for education in English, and have more marketability for the student seeking employment after graduation.


But on this point we are in complete accord.
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