Job Discussion Forums

[silvery]

I'd be interested to hear of anyone's experience teaching with RMIT in either HCMC or Hanoi.

The program seems to have a good reputation. Is it merited, in your view?
Are the students interested in learning, on the whole?
Is the workload reasonable in relation to the salary? Is there a great deal of preparation/marking to do?
Is there good support from educational/administrative staff?
Is the vacation time adequate?
Anything else worth noting?

Thank you for any comments.

[snollygoster]

RMIT advertises vacancies almost every week. That says something about staff turnover. Makes one wonder why there is such a high turnover that they need to advertise vacancies so regularly.

[silvery]

I have wondered about that point, too, snollygoster.

[deadlift]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that common practice for larger schools?

It doesn't necessarily mean that they are always employing new teachers. I've met several people (qualified, experienced) who have applied to RMIT numerous times, but have not been employed or even interviewed.

The RMIT teachers I've met have all been there for a year or more, and have expressed satisfaction with the school. One told me that getting a job there is difficult because turnover is low.

[bule_boy69]

I had look at the site and I see that the hourly rate is good, but no mention of how many hours teachers get.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Furthermore I notice that the figure quoted is gross, what kinda tax do you guys pay in Vietnam?

Thanks

[Kornan DeKobb]

Why can't I even get an interview with these people?

[bje]

[clayrview]

I'm assuming they want people with a Masters..

My boyfriend has his Celta/BA and 3 years experience and like others here, hasn't heard anything back.

[bje]

[spycatcher reincarnated]

Having a continual requirement for teachers does not necessarily mean they have high teacher turnover.

Doing a bit of math:

50 teachers (guess)
average teacher stays 2 years (guess)
1 new teacher is required every two weeks

The above assumes:
student numbers are constant, which I believe is wrong as I think they are growing quickly
none of their EFL teachers take other positions at RMIT, which I believe is not the case, as quite a few of them have further degrees and I believe they go on to teach on other programs, thus leaving holes in the EFL department, which need to be filled.

Continual recruitment could be an indication of their success.

[Kornan DeKobb]

[bje]

[Kornan DeKobb]

[bbeye]

There are other threads on the subject worth reading, but here�s a really long answer to the questions posted by the OP and others.

The program does not have a good reputation among the Vietnamese � RMIT has had a captive audience and a monopoly in Vietnam because, until recently, it was the only foreign degree-granting institution in the country. For those parents who can�t afford or don�t want to send their children overseas and for those students whose marks or English skills are just not good enough for overseas unis, RMIT has filled a niche (this is all changing with the new foreign unis moving into Vietnam). It is very easy to get accepted into and obtain a degree from RMIT � the Vietnamese know this, and they certainly do not consider RMIT a top-ranking uni in Vietnam. In fact, no one does.

As for the students, remember that it costs quite a bundle to take the English prep courses or the undergraduate academic courses. Are the students interested? - as much as any other student in any other place I suppose. Just keep in mind that many of them will inherit their parents� money and business and are expected to obtain an undergraduate degree in business/marketing because in this day and age everyone seemingly needs an accredited English-based education to compete in the global market place.

There is considerable preparation and workload � you betcha! You have to work with a co-teacher and a team so you have weekly �here�s what you are teaching� �here are the students� complaints� or �gee, what are we teaching?� meetings. You also have a lot of prep because, even though there are actually curriculum books specifically designed for and used in the courses, the materials and teaching methodology is so archaic and poorly designed that you still need to extensively supplement your classes from countless other resources. You�ll spend a lot of time in front of the photocopier and cutting and pasting. You�ll also spend a lot of time marking student work. And don't forget that you'll also have to coordinate all your student marking with your teaching partner.

Is there good support � in short no, not from the department and certainly not from the university itself. There�s a heavy bureaucratic structure and a class system in place at RMIT. At the top are the head administrators reporting to the President, down past the admin line you reach the professors down through to the lecturers, then you find the Vietnamese admin support staff, and then finally at the very bottom of the pecking order are the English teachers in the English department. You do what you are told.

As for the incessant advertising: both HCM and Hanoi have had notoriously high turnover rates for years, and the need to advertise every week or month is not simply attributable to an increase in student enrollment.

Notoriously poor and contentious management styles in both HCM and Hanoi English departments, including mistreatment of staff and part-time staff over the years, forces the powers that be to continuously search for fresh faces � preferably those with an undergraduate degree in any subject + any old ESL certificate (an RSA or Trinity Certificate is not required) + 1 or 2 years experience teaching at any old language school (although those from ILA are preferred). Newly hired English teaching staff are always young and have some kind of language school experience, but certainly not college or university or public school teaching experience � none of the English teaching staff have bona fide teaching credentials.

If you are an academic and have an MA or many years experience, take this warning and go elsewhere as you will not survive in this non-academic venue. Your formal contract designation is �teacher� not �lecturer� so you do not have the same staff privileges or access to skills/career training as the academic staff do. All newly hired lecturers get a 2-week training period in HCM and have the opportunity to take many professional and career developing courses over time � �teachers� in the English department do not have access to these career advancement courses and get nothing but the local harangue from the dictatorial coordinators and managers in the English department.

The woefully outdated and formulaic curriculum, and the acerbic management style are enough to make any self-respecting EFL professional cringe with embarrassment. Yelling and berating both students and colleagues is a past time for any number of the poorly qualified English teaching staff who have hung on and continue to hang on because they really have no where else to go or because they now have Vietnamese families and have no incentive to move on.

The English department is a language school run under the RMIT logo and that�s about it. It is nothing more than a language school and a cowboy operation at that. The department is not subject to standard university regulations or operating procedures and indeed is not subject to any formal audit or oversight committees or procedures that the �real� university and the staff undergo on a regular basis.

It�s a language school folks and runs by its own rules. It�s a preuniversity prep course for high school students who want to be accepted at RMIT The level of language skills taught is equivalent to grade 9 (which also says something about the skill level of their academic courses). Teachers are berated if anyone fails their course, and it is in the department�s published plan to raise the pass rate and ensure that no one fails (and you all should know what that leads to). You teach a 4-hour class each day if you have the 20-hour a week full-time load. (Lecturers, by the way, teach a maximum of 12 hours a week.) You �co-teach� with someone else over the week and teach one class for 3 days and another class for 2 days. You may have 4 students or you may have 25; you may get split shifts or you may not � depends if the person doing all the scheduling likes you or not.

Yes, they pay well (but other foreign universities and some language schools in Vietnam easily match and exceed that pay). You are subject to 20% tax deduction at source. You�ll be entitled to 20 days paid vacation in addition to standard Vietnamese holidays, but you will not be permitted to take all 20 days vacation at one time and certainly not during the busy summer period when all the high school students are there trying to cheat their way into getting an 80+ in English. You get health insurance but only 6 days sick leave a year so what ever you do, don�t get seriously ill or have an accident.

You should take note that RMIT�s 5-year plan includes a reduction of these English courses and a phasing out of the department in Vietnam-you can find these documents through the Internet if you know where to look.

Those of you with professional or academic qualifications, experience, or designations won�t have much luck getting a job in the English department because they don�t really want you, contrary to what their advertisements might claim. As I said, they hire young and inexperienced and minimally qualified ESL teachers. The more malleable and hungry you are, the better. If you have an MA or PhD, apply for the academic lecturer positions and stay away from the RMIT English language school. Good luck to the rest of you.

[haller_79]