Job Discussion Forums

[Lloyduss]

Hello again

Any information, experiences (good or bad), or tips regarding this university would be really really appreciated as I'm near accepting an offer (they tick a lot of boxes for me)


Thanks


P.s Thanks guys for replying to my other topics as I found them very informative!

[Simon in Suzhou]

Was there for a couple years. Overall a good place to work. The administration is straightforward, honest, and never played any of the silly games you get at some places in China. Never any problems with pay or money at all, although the unique contract scares many people away.

Students are lovely there. It's a private university and most of the students come from means and have an impressive level of English. Most take some academic classes entirely in English, which average Chinese students cannot do.

The campus is beautiful, a bit remote, but the high speed rail should now make it accessible to both Guangzhou and Gongbei (Macau border) in a way it wasn't a few years ago. Usually clean air compared to the rest of the China.

The pay is a little better than the average university job, but the workload is harder too. They only pay by the teaching hour, which means you get nothing during any holidays or vacations. Still, its better than your average 5000RMB/month job. They will want you to teach a few academic lecture-style classes, which can be rewarding (variety as opposed to just the same oral english classes), but also more work (prep, correcting homework, exams, etc.).

There is a good, friendly crew of veteran teachers who have been there for some years. The best food I've had on any campus in China! Very good canteens and restaurants!

[Lloyduss]

"although the unique contract scares many people away"

Really? I haven't seen the contract yet would you care to elaborate on this, thanks.

Oh, I actually didn't know it was a private university as I thought because it was part of the Beijing Normal University it was a public, again, thanks for that bit of information

[Simon in Suzhou]

My bad, it is a public university and part of BNU in Beijing.

The contract may have changed since i was there. They used to hold back like 10% of your monthly salary and then give that to you before the winter and summer vacations. This really freaked people out here on this board and many guffawed claiming they would NEVER agree to such a contract. But in my time there (and from the years before according to the long-timers) no one had ever NOT received their full payment. It was an odd practice, i think brought about as an anti-runner incentive. For me it just turned out to be a built-in savings plan for the holidays when i wasn't getting paid.

[Lloyduss]

Okay, thats not too bad. Thanks Simon!

[boomhauer20055]

I would talk to some of the teachers there first. I visited there 2 years ago and talked to about 10 FT's. Not one of them liked there job. Had a lot to do with the hours they worked.
Talking to them was enough to scare me away. I have never worked there so I can't say first hand. I would advise you to talk to as many of the teachers as you can. Most of them were there because they really love the city.

[ZoeinZhuhai]

I taught there for three years, but am moving on. Facilities are really not up to par--most rooms lack A/V equipment, and listening and speaking are taught separately. Therefore, teachers are trying to teach speaking with both hands tied behind their backs.

You are paid hourly, with no paid holidays or bonuses. You have to pay for your own visa (about 800 yuan). Airfare stipend is also 7000 yuan, below many other schools.

Most troubling is a change in the Dept. of Foreign Language's attitude toward foreign teachers. They seemed fairly amiable and accepting my first year, but less so the past two years. Each year the dept. has broken contract in some manner. My first year they gave teachers more than the 18-22 hours/week, and people were simply burned out. My second year, many new teachers were not given one-bedroom apartments as promised, and many of their rooms lacked hot or even warm water. Several teachers have quit during a semester, and on average about half have left after any given year (about 10 have resigned after this past year).

The school and dept. don't seem to care. I gave them three years, but once I informed them of my decision to leave, I was treated like gum on the bottom of their shoes.

[Simon in Suzhou]

It's sad to hear how things have changed there.

[mulanmiddlekingdom]

When I first came to BNUZ at the same time Zoe did, I pretty much had the same experience as Zoe did - mostly a good experience. Things started to change the second year when our stellar foreign affairs helper left. She would contact people even if they had no complaints - she just wanted to see if she could help us in any way. When she left, things started to spiral in the wrong direction. The school could care less about its students - they seem not to be aware that if there are no students, there is no school. I have taught at several schools in Asia and this school gave you Korean apartments with Chinese pay - both small when you consider the size of people and the size of classes.

The students are great and colleagues - with one noteable exception CW - are fine. I teach because it is a vocation to me. I know not everybody feels that, but it ought to at least be a profession. The people in administration have no clue of that idea - they just believe their job is to pass down the words from above and these words are often laughably inappropriate. There is no one in charge and there are never any complaints lodged to the teachers until after it is too late to do anything about it. Teachers are not allowed to face their accusers, nor the decision-makers, and are denied even the names of the people making decisions.

I am not a teacher who is dissatisfied with the students nor were they dissatisfied with me as their ratings show. I am strict -and the good students appreciate that. BNUZ seems to want entertainers and only that.

[ZoeinZhuhai]

I forgot to mention that the internet barely worked. Foreign instructors were segregated into one building (two different wings), and some web sites like Yahoo didn't work correctly. Just as frustrating was the fact I couldn't download anything--no torrents for movies or music. At the same time, students and Chinese instructors seemed to be able to download without any problems from their own buildings. Complaints of this nature were simply ignored by our department and/or the school.