Job Discussion Forums

[miketravers59]

May 13th, 2006

Hi
I might be going to teach chemistry at a Chinese University in
September.

A former colleague of mine, in the UK who is from that university, is arranging the job. He has close ties with the university. The president is a good friend of his and one of his former PhD students is a professor in the department where I would be teaching.

I'm a bit concerned that I have not received anything in writing yet.
According to my friend they have agreed in principle but will only make up their minds for definite in late May or early June. Even then he said I would probably not a get a formal written contract. He suggested that I go there on a tourist visa a few weeks before term starts and we could work out what exactly I would be doing. Only then would they try to get me a work visa and give me a formal contract. This sounds very fishy to me but an American friend of mine who teaches ESL in China says that this sort of arrangement is not uncommon. She has been in China for 2-3 years at several different schools.

I read somewhere (possibly on this forum) about an American academic who was supposed to go to China to teach something other than English. When he got there they told him that foreigners were only qualified to teach English. This was despite the fact that he had a PhD from a top American university.

I don't have any formal ESL qualifications. I'm only interested in
teaching chemistry. I might do some research also in one of the groups if that would earn me any browny points but I'm not interested in starting up my own research groups.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

Many thanks

[China.Pete]

Ahh... Where to begin?

1. Coming to China to work on a tourist visa.

I'm sure that this is sometimes done. There may even be someone at the university, such as the president or party director, who has the "guanxi" to get you the proper work permit after you arrive. But I would ask myself, why? If it is a university, it should certainly be able to get authorization from the provincial Foreign Experts Bureau to bring in a PhD to teach there. Why so much informality? Granted, Chinese administrators can be slow to make up their minds, but this seems a bit rediculous. I mean, universities in China arrange this sort of thing all the time. So I would ask myself, if a university in Glasgow made such an offer to me, would I quit my job, give up the lease on my apartment and buy an air ticket to get there? I don't know. You will have to answer that question for yourself.

2. Only English teachers need apply.

Not so! Many of the best Chinese universities, and others besides, are aggressively seeking foreign MAs and PhDs as lecturers. A major challenge would seem to be offering salaries that might be attractive to westerners with such qualifications. My own university is currently looking for people with MAs who can teach finance, economics and accounting for about 6,000 RMB per month net.

3. No formal ESL qualification.

Now you're getting to the real issue here. You are, I'm assuming from your post, well qualified to teach chemistry, but have no experience in teaching ESL students. You should be aware that the typical university student here may be unable to carry on an intelligible conversation in English - assuming they can even initially understand ANYTHING said by someone from your particular accent group. Their ability to understand a university lecture will, therefore, be necessarily constrained.

In addition, the university may be unable or unwilling to obtain appropriate English-language subject texts, which, in the event, the students would probably not be able to comprehend by themselves anyway. So you should expect to bring whatever you need in the way of resource materials with you, and to spend considerable time each week preparing Powerpoints or whatever, boiling down the content of your material to what you reckon the students can comprehend. This will likely become increasingly more simplistic as the term and your understanding of the students progresses. (This is not to say that China does not produce many exceptionally good students in the hard sciences, just that you shouldn't expect too much in some of the soft areas.)

Such issues MAY explain some of the reluctance on the part of the schools' administrators to make you a firm offer. But, more than likely, it simply reflects their level of organization and understanding of their own needs. That should be THEIR problem, however. You should not have to accept all of the personal and financial risk for their academic experimentation.

Good luck!

[Roger]

That proposition sounds somewhat dodgy! Have you checked the employer's profile?
The CHinese have sufficient numbers of qualified tertiary-level subject teachers even if you will find fault with some of their knowledge. For a Chinese college or university to hire an expat means they have a special need - either it is for English-language teachers who can teach a subject other than English using English as the medium of instruction; this means the employer is offering EMI (English as Medium of Instruction) classes, which might be fashionable in parts of China but you have to be wary because there are very very few Chinese students that are up to such rigorous language skill requirements!

And jobs in that bracket pay handsomely enough for the employer not to want to shy away from going that extra klick in getting you fixed up legally, with a formal contract and invitation up front.

[shenyanggerry]

Listen to Roger! At the very least, they should provide the invitation to let you get a 'Z' visa. I have a BA. My university got me the proper papers based on a copy of my degree/certificate (in jpg) and a telephone interview.

If it's a university and they can't provide that BEWARE. Also, if you're being asked to teach an academic subject at North American standards, wages should reflect it.