Job Discussion Forums

[chufeng]

Is it possible to get a university job in Beijing without a Master's degree? I have a BA from a top American university plus a TESOL certificate (a short course - 40 hours including several observed practice teaching sessions). I am currently teaching at a Normal University in another province, and I have additional years of experience teaching public speaking (not full time, and I'm not a licensed teacher) in the US. I love my current teaching position, but my SO is going to be studying in Beijing next year, so it is time to start looking for another position. Is it realistic for me to be looking for a university position in Beijing, or am I going to have to settle on a private language school or high school?

If anyone knows of specific universities in Beijing that might hire someone with only a BA, please post here or PM me. I'm having a hard time finding job announcements from Beijing universities, and it has been slow going using web searches and poking around university websites to find FAO contact information. I know that a lot of Beijing universities don't advertise, so if anyone has advice about finding contact information for FAOs (Is there a centralized list somewhere?) or can suggest specific universities I should contact, I would really appreciate it.

My SO will be at Tsinghua, so I would like to be a reasonable commuting distance from there.

[adamsmith]

Check out www.Chinatefl.com - I have used this site before in the past to locate jobs at uni's in beijing and many of them will hire with only a BA although the pay is pretty minimal from these unis for BJ in my opinion. You will want to find something in the Wudaoko area if you wish to be close to Tsinghua but there are many unis up there. Good luck.

[Shan-Shan]

It's China: I'm sure that there are universities in Beijing which would accept someone with a highschool diploma so long as they could get away with paying only a couple of thousand RMB per month.

From advertisements I've seen over the years, Beijing universities seem to offer rather low salaries. Why anyone with an MA would work for 4 or 5 thousand per month (or quite likely less) is a bit mind boggling. If enough are boggled by this, positions should be plentiful for mere BAs.

Though it is probably a wee bit outdated, the advert for Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (on Chinatefl.com) is offering 3000RMB for those with Masters degrees; 2600 for BAs. Even if this is an example of the absolute low of the low end, the opposite end of the spectrum can't be that much better.

But I can't comment from experience; others are likely better qualified to discuss Beijing and its higher learning institutes.

[chufeng]

I've used chinatefl.com (found my current university position through that site), but they have very few university positions listed in Beijing, and the ones they have are either far outside the city (in the wrong direction) or pay peanuts or only provide dorm-style accommodation or some combination of the above.

Is the Posts & Telecommunications Uni salary really typical for Beijing? I thought that had to be an outlier. The vast majority of universities in the rest of the country seem to be offering $4000+, and Beijing is a far more expensive place to live. $2600/month is insane - unless you literally do not leave campus (I would like to be able to do some traveling), do not drink (no problem for me), and eat only Chinese food (also no problem), you would barely cover your expenses on that salary in Beijing. I have student loans at home that I have to pay, so there is no way I would accept that. Do they really manage to fill positions at that salary? Maybe if it were BeiDa or Qinghua and would look really, really nice on a resume, but even that would be a serious stretch. And I'm guessing that BeiDa and Qinghua require at least an MA..... Why would anyone with an MA accept $3000/month plus a poor apartment with no kitchen?

Anyway, I digress... does anyone else have info on other universities in Beijing, particularly which ones will (or definitely will not) accept someone with a BA, or more info about prevailing university salaries in Beijing?

[jammish]

Yes, 3000 a month is absolutely pathetic in beijing. I started on 4500 in my first job, and that was in wuhan, a considerably cheaper city.

[Shan-Shan]

Yes, but you're in Beijing, the center of all that is becoming, the middle of all that is about to become! Olympics, coffee shop chain battles, super girl group concerts, celebrity sightings of Da Shan et al. Really, we foreigners in Beijing should be paying 3000RMB per month to the Party just so we can say "We did it! We made it to Beijing!" to all of our friends and family back home.

(In actuality, I've only been there once. Saw about 20 foreign people in less than 20 minutes, one riding a bicycle much to small for his frame, another wandering about with a rose in his mouth. Must say it put me off the city for good)

[brsmith15]

OP, if you're up to it, pay a few hundred $ and get a mail-order master's..or PhD if you like. When I was head of the business dept in a small US college I had a guy working for me that bought his doctorate. Even the school didn't check him out.

OR.......pretend you're Chinese. Lie!

[mlomker]