Korean Job Discussion Forums

[withnail]

Don't know about you, but looking over the job advertisements on the Korean job board over the last few years it often seems that those universities with the best reputations are often those who offer the worst terms to native speaker uni teachers.

Poster PRagic mentions SNU, HUFS & Konkuk as examples. Which other of the big names would you add to these?

Would it also be possible to make a top 10 list of unis who consistently treat their instructors well / are not known to screw people over / offer great conditions etc, etc?

In other words a list of the top Korean university department jobs (not unigwons - unless they are exceptional) judged only by the good reports of the teachers who work/worked there?

[TECO]

Two of the worst job offers I've ever had from universities in terms of salary, hours and vacation were from SNU and HUFS.

The best job offers in terms of the criteria above were from lower level schools...much lower.

[bassexpander]

Somewhat correct as a general statement, but I have heard that Ewha, for example, can offer some nice packages. I've also heard it depends on what dept. you are in. PR would know.

[seonsengnimble]

I've also heard that Yonsei offers a pretty crummy package. DongGuk seems like a decent job though.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

My hunch is that the best universities are probably in the middle bracket. The low-tier universities in Korea, and some are extremely dodgy, are probably also likely to treat foreign instructors shabbily, but for different reasons. With a top university there is likely a lot of arrogance and attitude that everyone is easily replaceable, and at the bottom an institution probably genuinely can't pay people well and is at the bottom for a reason.

[The Cosmic Hum]

[withnail]

Kyungpook National and Yeungnam are unis with great reps in Daegu, but they clearly treat their native speaker teachers somewhere below pond life...

[KoreanAmbition]

TECO,

Do you mean the SNU (credit) English department or the unigwon?

I currently know people in the English department and last I talked to them they were relatively happy there. I know they hired too many teachers last year and this caused some problems.

The unigwon has it's pros and cons... compensation is significantly high, especially if you're married and living in the provided housing.

[withnail]

bump

[PRagic]

Just to set the record straight, I said that those three universities had cleaned house and/or screwed over their teachers in the recent past.

To the best of my knowledge, Konkuk currently has a very limited number of ESL teaching slots that are great. They moved to a unigwon system some years back, leaving only a few positions in the actual department for a limited number of highly competitive ESL instructors. They really pulled the rug out from under more than a few qualified and experienced instructors.

The up-side to Ewha and Yonsei is that neither have term limits. The down side is that they don't provide housing or an allowance. On the other hand, they do give annual salary increases. Look into severance, though, as I'm not sure if they pay it, and that can add up over a few years. For people looking for better names to pump up their CVs, though, these are pretty good places to work from what I understand.

[naturegirl321]

Anyone know how SKKU stacks up?

[hugekebab]

The best ones in terms of package are often the extremely expensive to attend but academically poor private universities. I'm at one now and the package gives 5 months full uninterrupted vacation, but the students are poor and unmotivated and it ranks very low in the world rankings. Good job though, although socially it is hard to make friends as it is an extremely religious university and I am an atheist who simply cannot get along with those who make references to 'the end of days' in casual everyday conversation.

[KoreanAmbition]

SNU is a good name and provides some good benefits both in and out of the contract.

First, it provides excellent housing, especially the married housing. I don't think many schools in Seoul offer free housing that's over 20-pyeong in size (livable space), and touching the campus, with a bus stop literally at your front door, and subway a 15 minute walk away.

If you wanted to rent the housing that SNU provides to married couples it would probably cost about 1.5 million per month.

Another thing that no one ever talks about is the price of restaurants in the area near where they are work and live. For workers at SNU, the costs in Nakseongdae, for example, are very low and there's tons of variety. When I leave this area, I immediately notice how the prices get more expensive.

There is also less pollution in this area since the campus is built into the mountain, and that also means the scenery is much nicer and you're around a lot of trees. The campus is very huge and nice to walk around, and it's a nice walk down into Nakseongdae as well.

[jlb]

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