Job Discussion Forums

MsHoffman · Joined: 18 Sep 2016 Posts: 76

deleted post.

HeidiHector · Joined: 10 May 2017 Posts: 36 Location: China

Sounds like you dodged a bullet there!!

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

So if I'm hearing this right, it's 16000, which is 14000 after tax, minus 3500-4000 plus bi;;s for an apartment, you end up with 9000 or so in your hand for a 40 hour week including grading writing papers? DAMN

doogsville · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 924 Location: China

astrotrain · Joined: 18 Apr 2013 Posts: 96

I thought my contract was bad, 18K after tax for max 25 hrs with no stated office hrs. The lesson plans for AP MicroEcon is rough but don't know how you can develop proper lessons for 4 different classes a week? Unreasonable salary for the amount of work, work to salary ratio, pathetic.

MsHoffman · Joined: 18 Sep 2016 Posts: 76

I agree I can only base my opinion on a 20 minute interview and the contract. So yes someone who knows people who are happy teaching there is also a good resource. Balance is always good. Also I have no idea what it is like to teach there, but I think I can still feel sorry for someone working under contract conditions I would find difficult.

Regarding the location: they did say in the interview that they are moving to a new campus that is much farther from public transit than the previous location. I specifically asked about walking, bus, biking, and was told that a taxi to the train station was the only option, but yes in the old location getting to the train station was easier. To be fair, I thought I heard them say zhuhai north station but perhaps they meant a different one? Or the new location is closer to that station. They emphasized a few times in the interview the remoteness of the location.

Regarding rent: the stated rent is 2500 but when you add the hefty monthly maintenance fee (common in most nice apartment complexes), plus utilities and internet it ends up being 3500-4000. These are the numbers quoted to me in the interview. Both in the interview and the written materials they emphasized that there is only one apartment complex nearby and no other convenient options for accommodation. The contract states clearly that there is no on campus accommodation.

They also said it is significantly farther from the town with the expats when compared with the location of BNU Zhuhai, and I have a friend Who works at BNU And says it is in the middle of nowhere, so my feeling was wow, if BNU's campus is in the middle of nowhere, and then UIC's new campus is past that... yikes.

In th interview, They also said that teachers who "survive" the first year usually have easier teaching loads after that. So they overload the newbies. Awesome.

Regarding the workload in American universities: from 2009-2016, I taught Italian, women's studies, ESL, and College Writing at the university of California. I also taught ESL and College Writing at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I know perfectly well what a "real" teaching load is at a four year American university. What UIC wants is easily double that, if not more.

UIC is these "training center" places that are part of the university extension system of an American university (not the official university). They are intensive English programs where international students come to the US for 6-10 weeks only, and they take classes about six hours a day. The teachers in these centers are all former FTs who used to work in China and the Middle East. None of them had close to this teaching load, and yes their contracts specified a maximum hours of teaching per week.

Also my interview did not go well, and I still received an offer. So they are a little desperate I think...

Anyway I think there is enough pro and con information on this thread for people to make an informed decision. Ideally it would be nice to hear from someone who actually works there now, but I guess we work with what we have.

Guerciotti · Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 1:34 am Post subject:

You dodged a bullet. That's too much work. If I had that workload I would be too tired to bother going anywhere on the weekend, regardless of the uni's proximity to the city. It sounds like a recipe for long-term teacher burnout.

It doesn't really matter if it is a prestigious uni, the workload is immense, and they're paying half, or less, of what they should pay.

Thanks for the story, very interesting. Were I you, with your experience, I would definitely pass.

Cheers

Pinkpiglet · Joined: 31 May 2017 Posts: 15

I looked into this place once when I wanted to work in Zhuhai. Most of the Uni gigs in Zhuhai are out in the sticks and you can't get on a bus as they are all full of workers. The gigs there are not standard Chinese uni contracts (ie included free apartment etc) but some weird foreign company gigs , BNU Zhuhai and UIC fall in to this category. I didn't like the "unlimited hours" feel of this one either. I have a mail from a past teacher somewhere I will hunt for it.

doogsville · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 924 Location: China

ChrisHenry15 · Joined: 03 Jan 2015 Posts: 99

[quote="doogsville"]

MsHoffman · Joined: 18 Sep 2016 Posts: 76

deleted post.

doogsville · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 924 Location: China

RiverMystic · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Posts: 1986

That 's strange. I thought the pay was about 25K at UIC. I work not too far away from there. It's quite a nice area, but remote. I work for a similar set up in some ways, but way fewer hours and much better money. The bosses are very hands off. So the UIC gig doesn't sound that great to me, especially once you factor in housing.