Job Discussion Forums

[Ian Oakes]

Mainland ranks last in university pay survey

Saudi Arabia's universities offer the highest salaries and China's pay the lowest, the first global study of academic pay and conditions has found.
But starting salaries are highest in Canada, which has the second-highest average pay, while India's academics - whose pay is the second-lowest - receive the best remuneration relative to the size of their economy.
A host of pay figures to whet the appetite of academics at every step of the career ladder for an advantageous international move is provided in the survey by the Centre for International Higher Education at Boston College.

The study of academic pay in 15 countries across five continents, which will be formally launched in the US next week, compares pay rates using a "purchasing power parity" measure that shows the amount of basic goods a salary will buy in the country.

Philip Altbach, who led the two-year study, said it would be used by the growing number of academics looking for international postings.
"Our research project will stimulate people to think competitively about academic salaries globally and thus about academic mobility," he said.
"But academics won't be flying out to Saudi Arabia in large numbers because of the pay. It's not only pay that matters. It's also the working environment, the cultural milieu, and the general social and political climate."

One key finding was that full-time academics in many regions - especially Latin America, Africa and parts of the US - earned so little in public universities they had to supplement their income by "moonlighting" in the private sector or running businesses.

"Almost everywhere, professors are inadequately paid when compared to similarly qualified professionals in their society," he said. "And in many countries, many of them moonlight. They are doing more than one job."
The mainland's average pay of US$1,182 per month was less than 18 per cent of Saudi Arabia's US$6,611. But it had the highest ratio of starting salaries to top pay among the 15 countries, with high-fliers commanding salaries 2.7 times the size of new recruits' pay packages.

"In China's case there is a very big difference between what top scholars are earning and the rest," said Professor Altbach. "And top scholars in China also earn significant remuneration in addition to their salaries for publishing papers in prestigious journals and in consulting for the business sector."

SCMP, 01.11.08

[therock]

But does the survey take into account the perks university teachers receive in China? Last summer a group of Chinese teachers at my mill went to Europe for a three week holiday. They claim to receive only 2000RMB a month.

[GeminiTiger]

I just came home with ---

-3 large carrots
-2 large tomatoes
-2 large potatoes
-a 12' oz cup of beef steak strips (good quality!)
-a 24' oz cup of fresh white mushrooms
-a head of lettuce
-a portion of broccoli enough for 2
-a package of soft noodles from Japan
-a can of name brand spaghetti sauce from America

The cost was 45 RMB with 2 imported products.
Ie, for 5$, -- enough food for 2 or 3 dinner meals for 2 people.
Let's see you do that in Saudi Arabia.

[Ian Oakes]

Actually, you can do that! Saudi is probably cheaper than China, as I now discover. Anyway, even if Saudi was more expensive, it�s not 5 times more expensive, yet we earn 5 times more! Besides, those groceries of yours were probably caked in pesticides and other carcinogenic substances. Also, you have to pay tax in China, here it�s tax free. And what are you going to live on when you retire? How can you save when you�re being paid peanuts in China?

[JohnC]

[PattyFlipper]

The trick is to do your stint in the dunes first, giving you the financial wherewithal to choose where you wish to live after that.

The Middle East is no longer the panacea for all financial ills which many TEFLers believe it to be. Saudi apart, the Gulf is becoming horrendously expensive, while salaries and benefits (for TEFLers, at least) remain fairly stagnant. A decent job in China, though perhaps more difficult to find, could allow greater savings potential than slogging away with Ali and Abdullah in Oman or Kuwait.

Plenty of attractive women in the Middle East, by the way. You just have to choose your spot.

[Ian Oakes]

It is China that is becoming horrendously expensive, not the ME, and it is in China that salaries (read, 'wages') and benefits have remained stagnant. Where in the ME have you worked, PartyFlipper? I don't slog away here - I only have 14 contact hours a week, and I make 4,000 pound Sterling a month, tax free, that's in excess of 50,000 RMB a month. Please let me know where I could earn that in China!

[PattyFlipper]

^ Don't be misled by my facetious sobriquet on this board. I worked for tertiary-institutions in the Gulf for 18 years, on and off, in every GCC state except Kuwait (earning the kind of salary you boast of receiving now, fifteen or so years ago). Saudi is most definitely not representative of the Gulf as a whole - have you been anywhere else in the region? Saudi has price controls and subsidies in place on basic commodities which the other Gulf states most certainly do not. Rents in most places have gone through the roof (even in back-end of-nowhere little towns) and there is a disturbing trend for employers to offer an allowance rather than provide accommodation. Several teachers have recently left Qatar and the UAE, as they discovered that their allowance was insufficient to find even the most basic accommodation - unless they wished to live like a labourer from the Sub-continent. Take a look at the TEFLing salaries on offer in Oman and Bahrain, for example - some of them are lower than those offered by the British universities which have fairly recently established themselves in China. And in most places in the Middle East outside of Saudi (I'm guessing you're at KFUPM), you WILL nowadays be expected to work for your salary. Some institutions in the UAE demand 40-45 hours per week on-campus and may even go so far as to lock the campus gates, to ensure students and faculty cannot leave during working hours.

Of course it depends on individual qualifications and experience (something which the Gulf is generally better at rewarding than most Asian countries), careful selection of your employer, personal lifestyle, and as always, the luck of the draw. However, I stand by my previous comment that the Gulf is not necessarily the panacea for all financial ills which some teachers believe it to be, nor will it necessarily be a pleasant experience.

[gregmcd101]

[ralph wiggim]

Sure I'll take a Saudi women in a sexy black burka any day over a 103 pound slim attractive China girl.

Sure, of course, sure...

By the way how does a bottle of coconut rum cost there?

[GeminiTiger]

[PattyFlipper]

[ralph wiggim]

[Ian Oakes]

[GeminiTiger]