Job Discussion Forums

[sophiaj]

I noticed that Prince Sultan University is advertising on Higher Ed Jobs and will be recruiting at TESOL Arabia. I'll just warn anyone who is considering taking a job with that university that PSU does not pay 1/2 month's gratuity if you stay only a year. This is contrary to Saudi Arabian Labor Law, by the way, but it is written in your contract. The only good thing about the place is that they pay salaries on time. If anyone wants any other info, just send me a pm.

[johnslat]

Dear sophiaj,

It was the same at the IPA: 1 year = no EOS bonus. You had to stay two years minimum. At the end of two years you'd get a month's salary. And then, it was half a month a year until you hit five years. After that, it became a full month for each year.

I don't know for sure, but I imagine it's still true now. It was when I left in 2003.

Regards,
John

[JK01]

[sheikh yer money-maker]

I had an offer to start work with them last Sept. 22nd, but the "No LONO" rule cut them from the herd. I wants no fingerprints on me when I leaves somebodys.

I want no claim on them and I don't want no claims on me.

However, that's the ONLY reason I had to decline. Silence about them on Dave's speaks volumes!

[sophiaj]

PSU does have a policy of taking a digital fingerprint so that you can gain access to the classrooms that have digital locks. I was one of the few people there who declined. That decline resulted in a letter stating that anyone who did not comply could be subject to disciplinary action.

In practice, very few of the locks worked! In practice, nothing was actually done to those of us who declined.

As for not employing non-native speakers of English, most of the female English teachers are non-native and many don't have masters degrees in TESOL. Salaries are based on education and experience, however. I had to send my transcripts to them before I was issued a contract. I found nothing strange about that.

Very little has been posted about Prince Sultan University because of the atmosphere of fear and bullying that the female English teachers have to endure there. People are afraid of losing their jobs if they say anything.

There is nothing new or shocking to this.

The head of the English department has the reputation of not doing anything, of being weak and incompetent.

She'll be recruiting at TESOL Arabia.

She is responsible for the fact that students aren't put into levels and that everyone had to be on the same page of the textbook on the same day.

Even though the vice rector has decided that the English foundations program should have levels, the head of the department has avoided doing this. I don't think anyone there knows how to put students into levels and how to select textbooks that would be appropriate for different levels.

Fifty percent of the female students fail their English foundation courses, by the way.

The guys don't have these problems and have a director who is well respected.

I also have not mentioned that the housing for PSU is mostly substandard. I had a refrigerator that was 30 years old and broke down frequently. Even after I was diagnosed with neuritis, an inflammation of the nervous system caused by eating food from my refrigerator, the rental agency that PSU uses refused to replace the refrigerator.

There are lots of complaints about the housing that just go ignored.

I worked in the UAU years ago and my experience there was completely different.

As for being lucky to get into PSU, that may be true if you're a guy. If you're female, it just depends. "Lots of luck," is all I can say.

I wish someone had warned me last year when I accepted a job with them!

[dutchman]

[JK01]

Sophiaj thanks for the update,

I'm sorry to hear about your negative experience with them, I guess the grass is not always greener...

It's really nice to hear up-to-date information about institutes.

The people I spoke to were from the male side, they appeared to be happy and like you mentioned things appear to be more organised and civil.

Regards

JK

[sheikh yer money-maker]

[johnslat]

Dear sheikh,

It is only I, or does the wording seem a bit "off?"

". . . NATIVE SPEAKERS ONLY OF ENGLISH . . ."

I mean, it sounds as though were I a "native speaker" of English AND a "native speaker" of, say, Swahili, that would diminish my chances of getting hired.

(Of course, that raises the - to me - interesting question: Can one be a "native speaker" of more than one language?

Wiki thinks so: "One can have two or more native languages, thus being a native bilingual or indeed multilingual. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_language

WHat do you think?

Regards,
John

[sheikh yer money-maker]

It's completely plausable that a person can be a native speaker of more than one language. What seems inplausible to me is that you haven't run into one in your long experience as an EFL teacher!

The coolest example that I can talk to was the product of a Saudi father and an American mother going by the enviable name of Randy Riyadh (I S.Y.N., that was his actual name. Was fluent and popular with the other Saudi 7th graders at the King Faisal School, yet spent hours in the teacher's office discussing American politics and the rise of Newt Gringrich, whom his mother despised, with degree-holding professionals.

Wonder whatever came of that kid.

[tatsuo1]

[JK01]

[tor70]

Does anyone know what the pay range there is?

I have an MA in Linguistics (not applied), over a decade's experience as a full-time EAP/ESP instructor at a respectable university in Western Europe, but sadly no TEFL/CELTA, and can teach French, German and Spanish (which PSU is currently looking for).

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[scot47]

At KFUPM and other governmenet universities you have to serve two full years to qualify for End-of-Service gratuity.

[nomad soul]