Job Discussion Forums

[refugee]

My wife is going to study in the UK for a Master's next year. The choice of institution is going to be influenced by the availability of work for me in that city.

I'm British, have an MA TESOL, CELTA, and 8 years experience in SE Asia and Korea including some junior/middle management roles in schools.

London is the obvious choice (living costs aside). She's also looking at Oxford which I believe has some work available.

I know the employment situation in the UK has seen better days, but I'd be grateful if someone could share suggestions of where there probably would/wouldn't be some/any TEFL work available.

FWIW, I'd prefer EAP or such like.

[Dedicated]

I'm presuming by "next year" you mean 2013......

Surely a lot will depend on the subject field of her intended Masters ?? Not every university offers every subject. If she is accepted, you could try to get accepted to teach onto a pre-sessional course which is sometimes the back door into a more permanent position and private lessons.

Universities that have summer work (plus after sometimes) are:

Edinburgh
Exeter
Newcastle
Norwich (East Anglia)
Southampton
Manchester
Sheffield
Birmingham

Good luck in your decision!

[refugee]

Thanks for your response, Dedicated. I don't think I was clear in my post though. We're going to choose a university for her partially based on the availability of work in that university's city (or town) and not necessarily in that particular university (although that's something I'd obviously be looking in to).

Is that an exhaustive list you posted or just some institutions that spring to mind? I would have thought there would be more universities offering pre-sessional courses.

[Dedicated]

No, I'm afraid this is not an exhaustive list but just those that spring to mind, or those that I've heard about. I'm pretty sure there must be others.

You might like to check out jobs.ac.uk and baleap.org that seem to place adverts for pre-sessional teachers.

However, your wife should surely be looking at individual university rankings before deciding on a Masters that merely suits your possible employment.

PM me if you want more details about London openings.[/i]

[Dedicated]

A few more universities/cities where you might pick up EAP work :

Leicester
Bangor (N.Wales)
Aberystwyth (N.Wales)
Glamorgan (S.Wales)
Bath
Durham
Liverpool
Loughborough
Middlesex
Nottingham
Reading
Teesside, Middlesbrough.

[refugee]

Thanks for your insights and pointers.

At the moment she's looking at Oxford Brookes and LSE. The latter is 22,000 for the master's and Oxford's a snip at 13,000 - so that's a factor too.

I actually chose my grad school with consideration for how bearable it would be for the Mrs to live there (Brighton) and less so on the uni rankings.

Anyway, it would probably be in 2013 and so I'm just looking at options. Thanks again for the info.

[Dedicated]

There is a huge difference between an MA from LSE, a prestigious, world-ranking university and one from Oxford Brookes.

Presumably your wife is not British with such fees.

Whilst it is highly competitive to even get a place at LSE, having an MA from there will make securing a good job much more likely. On the other hand, that cannot be said about Oxford Brookes which is a very low ranking university. It could be false economy to invest in a cheap MA.

[Perilla]