Job Discussion Forums

[riccddem]

Does anyone know anything about teaching at Nanchang University, good or bad? The International Office representative that I'm dealing with is so incompetent that it is making me wonder what working there for a year would be like. Thanks!

[jerlyn]

Don't know about Nanchang Univ but city of Nanchang is old, polluted and buildings do not have heat in winter.

[Everest]

Riccddem,

I had occasion to visit a friend who was teaching at Nanchang U a few years back and a drearier gulag I hope to never see.

The city itself is bad enough (filthy, sulphrous air, no western amenities, a largely backward, rural population with all of the habits you might expect from that social group and freezing winters).

The staff accomodation consists of draughty, underfurnished apartments 'on campus' of the concrete 'third-world' sort and my friend was palpably embarrassed when he showed me around (he left Nanchang shortly after).

I understand that the regime at Nanchang U. is paranoid with 'spying' on foreign staff (your apartment will be regularly 'visited' when you are out and curfews). There are far nicer places to go in China and this dark, draughty, and depressingly squalid seat of learning is a place to be avoided at all costs.

[ChinaLady]

there must be a reason you want to live in the area where all the "educated" people were sent during the cultural revolution.
not by choice!
ah, you want to visit Mao's little palace where he entertained his "friends?"
no, run, run, run.
this is not a university for thinking people.
the people who stay there, and there are a few, are on a money stipend from their home country plus their RMB from the univer.
why do I know this?
I interviewed and visited the campus in 2003.
good luck!

[Brian Caulfield]

I am on my way there to teach at the teacher's college . U have got me excited . I will be spied on and they will look at my books and maybe sniff my dirty laundry. After living in the prize of China Qingdao it will be a good change. Actually I have heard better stories. The one thing I have learned in two years here is that the more sophisticated the Chinese person is the more chances they are going to rip me off . The Gong Ren have always treated me with the most respect . Also the staff at the school seems to stay a few years . This program of getting the old teacher out before the new teacher comes in, doesn't fly with me . The continuation of staff is important for the running of any successful business or school .
More important questions to be asked are things like . Does the school have a library ? : How big are the classes ? Do the teachers have offices and office hours? Can I make phot copies ?

[myesl]

Just for the record, Nanchang has two Pizza Huts, a Walmart with a second one on the way, and a Metro. Other than that, it's as crappy as any other generic Chinese city, I guess. I wouldn't recommend it, but this time of the year I don't imagine there are a whole lot of uni gigs. If it's just for the Spring semester, how bad can it be? I don't have the answer to that question.

[Mytime]