Job Discussion Forums

[Miyazaki]

[forest1979]

Great point!!

Anyone going for a university job must ask three questions so as to root out the faculty vs staff situation:

- Ask whether the job will involve the acquisition of the MoE teaching license. If the response is negative then it means the instructor will have staff not faculty status.

- The second question to ask is the total of mandatory teaching hours (as stated on the contract). If the answer is 14, 15 or 16 then it is not a faculty instructorship, which under MoE rules is limited to a complusory 11 classroom hours per week.

- Thirdly, ask about office hours. As a rule faculty members have a very small number of on-campus office hours. If the response is that the job is basically 9-5 then again it implies a staff contract.

So, if they want someone on-site from early morning to late afternoon, teaching all hours of the day, and not offering a teaching license, then be aware that it will be a job with no prospects.

[romanworld]

[forest1979]

Romanworld - I have a different take on what you say.

Do faculty have prospects? Yes, in the Taiwan system they do. They have access to NSC grant applications, and conference funding. They can if they publish in the TSSI or SSCI enjoy a privileged status within their department. Are they motivated to do this however? That's a different matter altogether. And also what they publish in a different matter too. I would though say that if the Taiwanese are serious about getting people to publish they need to provide better libraries. As things stand to attempt top level research is almost foolhardy. And ironically even the Taiwanese higher ed system 'acknowledges' this by putting so much emphasise on SSCI publishing as a means to gain promotion.

You mention ELC 'suffering' given the move to specialisation. I personally don't see this as a bad thing. Why should have a MA in anything automatically mean you can be a university instructor teaching English? The move to make people with education degrees or TEFL to teach english in ELCs can only be positive and should be seen as a professionalisation of what before was a very lax TEFL industry in the higher education sector. I mean look at it this way: where else in the world could a MA in cookery equate to being a good English instructor? Thankfully those days are coming to an end.

On the subject of acquiring a PhD there are many takes on this. Firstly, getting a PhD not only means getting more salary - not a lot more but more nonetheless - so for those 'fixed' to Taiwan due to marrying a local this is a big plus. Secondly, getting a PhD in theory provides a means to get off the island and be competitive in the international job market. But, I say this as a theoretical point, because getting a PhD from a Taiwanese uni, with a few exceptions, is no help in the international job market. Hence getting a PhD from a local uni is only worthwhile if you're staying on the island. Why get a PhD? Status. That is a major issue in some ELCs where the ration of PhD holders to MAs is as great in one exception, the largest ELC in Taiwan, 1: 16! Also having a PhD is a major plus if you're working at a private uni because with it, and some conference papers and publications you can get into the publi uni system, where you're better looked after and have more perks, one of which being better students!

It is true that buxibans do offer a competitive salary against holding a MA and working at a local uni. However as a PhD holder I was working for about 16-17 hours/week and was pulling in (consistently) over NT$100,000. Buxiban teaching can't allow for that unless you're clocking up some big time teaching hours through private class giving elsewhere.

As a final point, holding a PhD in my experience was very, very useful when wanting to take on part-time work. During my time in Taiwan I had easy pickings of work at very, very good unis because I was active in research and held a PhD. But, for MA holders, such 'freedoms' are not so forthcoming. However MA holders are not alone. I can state from my own experience and that of my colleagues that very few foreigners ever get promoted. Why? Unis are not competent enough to handle ambitious westerners and one of the problems stems from the poor, poor quality of staff who work in personnel offices. Go in there 3 times and ask the same question and you will get 3 different answers. Appalling unprofessional and this was one of the reasons why I got out of Taiwan. I was not prepared to risk my career development to the hands of those who didn't know their behinds from their elbows. This to me is an issue that should be taken up more by TEFLers in the higher education sector but it never is because, as we have said, lack of motivation to work through the system is endemic.

[romanworld]

[forest1979]

Romanworld - I quit Taiwan for a number of reasons, which include:

- I saw I can not fulfil my professional ambitions in Taiwan. When I did try to professional develop, and this includes going for promotion, the personnel office I dealt with barely knew what to do, and so it was obviously my application would fail. I therefore felt what motivation could I have knowing I could never get on.

- I became frustrated by the lack of common sense in the system of department governance. I got tired of also going to meetings where the same thing was always said and nothing done. I grew bored of reactive as opposed to proactive thinking.

- I had worked at a number of unis, both full and part-time, and realised that ultimately i could have no long term future in Taiwan. I wanted to develop myself as an academic, I wanted to challenge myself through publishing, conferences, the acquisition of research grants, etc., and while I could do this to some degree in Taiwan it barely would have any value off the island. I also, to go back to the personnel office issue, ran into problems when applying for a NSC research grant which, and this is almost laughable, was stopped by my uni because they, and this is gospel truth, "didn't know that I wanted to undertake research". This in the context of being told time and time again that staff should publish and do research! Under such a joke grasp of professionalism I never I could not work there for much longer.

So whilst I was working for 16-17 hours in the classroom and scoring over NT$100,000 per month I realised that money was not everything. And if money was my God I could earn more under better conditions in other places in SE Asia.

To top it all off when I came to Taiwan one Euro was less than 30 NT. By the time I left it was 48. No way was I going to stay under ball-ache conditions for a small salary. I want to do things with my life both professionally and personally and Taiwanese profs work conditions and salaries were not going to grant me the chance to do them. Time to go!

On the subject of the regime and its agenda, as it has been put, I think there's important issues to also raise:

- Who are the gate-keepers of ELCs?

- Who controls what can and cannot be done in the programmes?

And as has been commented upon, if you want to get on - and by this I define it as no one bothering you - you merely get in the classroom and do what is asked. You don't bother to ask questions and disrupt those holding the keys.

[forest1979]

On the subject of foreigners and promotion I would guess that no more than a few foreigners have ever achieved promotion because the regulations have not been translated by their unis into English. With Taiwan being so rule loving you can bet your bottom $ that those that have tried to get promotion have failed because their departments have not properly translated what the application had to consist of.

[romanworld]

I thought I'd post this from the China Post about rankings of universities in Asia:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2009/05/12/207746/HKU-tops.htm

The best university in Taiwan, NTU, came in at a disappointing 22 on the list. "Feng Yan-wen, dean of studies, of NTU expressed shock at the fact that NTU is ranked 22nd, saying that the fact that Hong Kong universities follow the British system may have helped their rankings." Typical Taiwanese rationale: Blame others for your own shortcomings.

[forest1979]

I don't want to get into Taiwan bashing as I have previously stated that despite shortcoming in Taiwan I did enjoy my time there (by and large). However I do wish the Taiwanese would not make excuses for their shortcomings and would instead look inhouse for valid reasons for their own failings.

Concerning the China Post article the Dean's comments show fundamental misinformation:

- HK is not adopting the British system anymore and is moving to the four year system, i.e. the very same system as NTU has. Although the move in HKU is not for 2-3 more years every uni there is already in a transition phase and is well on the way to assimiliate the new system.

- HKU constantly complains that the government does not give it enough money and is always quoted as saying, very vociferously, that HK is the world's worst developed society for giving money for education and research.

These two basic facts blow apart the NTU Dean's comments. Furthermore I don't hear of the Korean's and Japanese complaining about British system when they too lean, like Tai Da, on the US-4 year system.

Maybe she should look at the criteria by which her university was appraised: citations and international faculty being 25% of the total grading!

Maybe too she should realise that the KMT is not throwing open cheques in the direction of NTU like the Chen Shui-bian administration were willing to, all in the hope of putting NTU in the top 100 unis of the world. Obviously the KMT government has other priorities.

As for HK the unis there have long established traditions of academic excellence and research, plus they have realised that the global education system is changing, and in the case of HKUST is specialising as a top level vocational-centred institute, one that has received worldwide attention both in THES and other surveys in the past couple of years.

[ESL Hobo]

To the OP,
For almost the same amount of money you would probably be MUCH happier teaching at CMU, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

[Taylor]

Bump.

[surrealia]

Any reasons for this bump, over four months after the last post?

[Taylor]

Who are you Surrealia...? Obama's new Bump Czar?

There had been some recent discussion in the thread "Job opportunities with M.A. TESOL and Mandarin Proficiency" regarding the employment situation at universities in Taiwan.

I had stated that a PhD is necessary for full-time work. Someone 'corrected' me without any mention of the faculty vs. staff distinction--and the much lower pay AND increased teaching load that goes along with being staff.

I thought that might be relevant. Sorry for not elaborating before Bumping.

[surrealia]

[forest1979]

True. Certainly not as easy as 5 years ago but if language centers are desperate they will take anyone on so as to fill their teaching quota.