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[gettinglostinesl]

Anyone have any updated information concerning this school? Latest I can find is from 2004.

Weird thing in their contract, "Party A is responsible for electricity with maximum 200 degrees, water with maximum 6 tons and gas charges for maximum 5 kilo per month per household."

I don't know if this a lot or a little.

And also, can someone comment on:
V. Intellectual Property
Within the contract period, Party B will have the permission to use the coursewares or teaching materials developed on campus, but not for any commercial purposes. Party B will have no permission to obtain any intellectual property rights including copy right. Party A otherwise has the right to lodge a claim with Party B.

Does this mean I can't use my lesson plans or power points or whatever later in a paper when I get my master's degree?

Thanks all in advance.

[talentedcrayon]

I think they might be trying to say that they own whatever materials you make for your classes. You have no rights to copyright anything.

[gettinglostinesl]

[Deats]

Of course you could use them in your MA. How would they even know!?

I honestly don't know if it is a lot or a little for energy consumption, but utility bills are usually not very high anyway. It's not something I would worry about, because even if you do exceed them, you'd probably only have to pay 100Y.

[gettinglostinesl]

[tangmu]

I just finished a season in hell in this place. Firstly, you won't have to worry about exceeding those energy limits given that your housing is basically a dormitory room with small kitchen and bathroom attached. It can't really be called an apartment and quite a few teachers had other accommodations off campus (paid for by themselves, which is an absurdity given the standard 6000 for 16/20 hrs salary at Neusoft.) The school also apparently rented rooms in the building to well-off students and even to rural families crammed into the tiny rooms, which made for some minor annoyances, slamming doors, aunty yelling at her kids, etc.

The lion's share of students were ill-mannered and spoiled. By spoiled, I mean that I saw a few Porsches and even a Hummer parked outside the dorms. They did poorly on their college entrance exams and many had the mentality of entitled customers. Ostentatious yawning, playing on phones, complete refusal to communicate in English during group tasks, cursing and vulgar language in Chinese, perhaps endemic behaviors among many Chinese private university students, seemed particularly shameless and prevalent here. It felt more like a private language training center, where the student's parents pay for edutainment from an Anglophone buffoon.

Neusoft is foremost a corporation that sells medicals equipment, provides various services, outsourcing, develops software and has opened a few institutes as a part of expanding their business. As such, you have coordinators, the coordinators have supervisors, etc., very corporate structure, though you won't be compensated for the added alienation: the salary is standard uni 6K for 16-20 hours depending on whether you teach writing or oral. There was a computerized attendance system and all manner of spreadsheets and end of semester paperwork required of the teacher. In the States, academics bemoan the corporatization of the university, here you have the universitization of a corporation.

It all felt particularly demoralizing given the lack of decorum, effort, motivation and laziness of what felt like the majority of the students. There were a few good students, but it's hard to see how years spent alongside vulgarians who will ultimately receive the same diploma they will (which deflates its value) does much good for anyone beside the investors reaping the profits. The bottom line seemed to be making the customers happy. The school advertisement (on youku.com) seems to portray a kind of utopia, where technology effortlessly educates in between fun at basketball and skateboarding.

Given the poor quality of the students, some attitudes of the administrators and coordinators were quite arrogant, smacking of corporate indoctrination. In any case, Dalian is a very livable city for a foreigner, but you could do better in many of the other universities in the city that pay more, offer a proper apartment and have real students. I know Neusoft has (illegally, I might add) hired teachers without a proper BA degree in the past, so the only way I would recommend the place is to someone in that boat who insists on Dalian. Or someone doing a sociological study of nouveau riche Chinese millennials. Anyone who has attained higher deserves better than to cater to young customers who have been spoiled by their extended family without ever having to think about what it costs anyone.

[gettinglostinesl]

Well thanks for the warning tanmu!

[Miura Anjin]

I worked here a few years ago and what tangmu says mostly tallies with my experience, especially regarding the students: many of them really are completely and utterly lacking in any kind of motivation to study (anything, let alone English). Not all of them - there are some lovely, hardworking students there - but the vast majority.

The attitude of the supervisors/coordinators wasn't that bad when I was there. Problems I encountered were mainly due to incompetence on the part of a couple of them rather than arrogance.

I wrote a longer post in this thread where it seems I was actually quite positive. The student motivation thing can be a real downer though.