Job Discussion Forums

[Polly0607]

I have noticed that some posters work in public (aut�noma) universities. I am currently working in the private sector and looking to maybe change to public.

I was wondering what posters think about the advantages and disadvantages of public and private institutions, particularly for teachers with masters degrees or undergrad plus formal teacher training.

I can get us started with a disadvantage in the private system. I�m at the Tec de Monterrey, which is struggling to stay alive with so much competition. This causes administrators to be more concerned with retention and not academics. The academic level has gone down while the inflated egos of the students have grown.

One disadvantage of the public system would probably be salaries. They tend to be lower. Though I have been told that research bonuses can boost you up.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance for you opinion.

[MELEE]

First of all I think the tec is struggling because its over extended itself and no longer can maintain the quality it used to be know for. It has built so many new campuses in the last ten years, showing that they are interested in profit first, education second.

I work in a public university that makes students who can afford it pay. It is different from the Automous universities in so many ways. For one ALL the teachers are tenure or tenure-track. All teachers are full time and the pay is competitive with the Tec. Its lower, but the cost of living in my city is considerably lower than the cost of living in most Mexican cities so depending on the personal spending habits of the teachers, we are probably banking as much or more as TEC teachers. It is rather hard to get those research bonsus people talk about if you do not have a PhD and are not publishing (but they do double some teachers salaries). That program was created to try to stop the brain drain but the do alow non Mexican nationals in on it.

Our student motivation levels are all over the board as is the academic level. Our students also come from a very VERY wide band of economic classes in society, many are the first in their families to attend university, or even graduate from high school. While I don't agree with all the points of the vision this university was founded on, in general I find it a very rewarding professional experience.

[Polly0607]

Yes, I can agree with that. The Tec has been so worried about growing that they have let their academic level slide.

The organization is supposedly non-profit, but the companies on the board of directors get to manage the teacher�s pension fund and savings plan. Each campus also invests a large percentage of its yearly budget, obviously in those same companies.

The Tec is also very top-heavy, with too many highly paid administrators. Considering what each student pays monthly to be here, teacher salaries are not very high, even with a masters degree.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

I think it all depends on which public/aut�noma university. At the one where I teach, in the department of foreign languages it doesn't matter what one has above the minimum requirements for qualifications and experience, most of us have the same type of low-level contract. The last tenured position offered in our department was about 15 years ago. If a teacher isn't well connected through blood or money, there is no chance for advancement.

Right now -- I just attended a meeting about it yesterday, as a matter of fact -- the university is in a real Catch-22 situation. Teachers are needed for a relatively new degree program, Teaching of Foreign Languages, offered through College of Education. Over-simplified here, university written policy is to hire only teachers from within the system to teach in this program. In order to be an accredited program, teachers' degrees must be recognized by SEP. However, all teachers, local and foreign alike, who are in the system and who have the qualifications and required degrees (MA degree minimum) received those degrees abroad (USA, Spain, UK, etc.) SEP doesn't automatically recognize degrees earned outside of Mexico. In order to have those degrees SEP-approved, it involves a very long, bureaucratic, and expensive process including notarized documentation of all steps of one's education starting with primary school on up through MA or PhD degrees. (I realize this may vary depending on location, insitution, and other factors, but this information is what we were told at the meeting yesterday.) Also, according to what we were told at the meeting, getting SEP approval for a degree that was issued in a foreign country is usually at least a 2-year process. The university will be able to slide by on a provisional basis for awhile, if they can convince some of us to take those positions for low pay on our low-level type of contract . . . if we agree to pay for all of the SEP-approval requirements on our own with no financial help from the university including any further graduate-level courses that SEP might require, and with no guarantee of tenure if we do all of that. However, since none of us has Pendejo tattooed on his/her forehead, I doubt that they'll get many takers voluntarily. It'll probably come down to a power issue: Teach those courses for half of what you should get paid for them and do the SEP approval process if you want to keep your job.

[Polly0607]

What a difficult situation. Well we can definitely add one thing to the list of disadvantages: Red Tape.

The closest public university to me is the Universidad Aut�noma del Estado de M�xico in Toluca. From what I can tell they accept foreign university degrees. Foreigners are not blocked from any academic position or research bonus, though I�m sure it would be very hard to get to any job higher than the director of a language-related department. Even that would be hard without connections.

Advantages here at UAEM: Good health care (special system of hospitals and clinics for state employees), housing credit, strong union (they got a 4% raise this year which is less than we got at the Tec where we have no union), less stressful working environment from what I am told.