Korean Job Discussion Forums

[autumneve]

All these �Visiting Professor� or �Non-tenured� Professor jobs being offered are Korean Universities contemptible means of whoring out foreign teachers as � full time professors�. The Korean Government has required Korean Universities to hire more full time professors to improve the quality of the Education but the schools have found a way around the law. They have to �prove� that they have �hired� more full time professors by December 1st. Tenured Korean professors make double and triple the wages we make and get the whole vacation time. Yes, they do have PhD�s, but the schools are trying to be shoddy and hire the aliens, so that they don�t have to pay as much or give benefits.
If we want to improve our working conditions, we have to get Korean academia to up the stakes. We can get better working conditions if we work together. Go ahead and apply, but when they schools respond tell them you have to have more vacation time, salary and/ or better housing. We are in a sellers market, they need us more than we need them.
If you would like to see what schools are offering I have an excel sheet of eighteen universities with general working conditions and salaries, send me an email and I�ll forward it to you. [email protected]

[TECO]

Would that be the Jeonju position you saw on the job board?

I too was wondering what the "Visiting" Professor title meant.
Sounds temporary, though, doesn' it.

Anyone know how long that would be for?

[Real Reality]

autumneve,

You might find the following excerpt interesting:

Foreign professors do most of the heavy lifting in terms of course loads, devoting themselves almost exclusively to teaching. They tend to be treated as hired hands, without academic standing, and lacking the possibility of career advancement or tenure. They must submit to yearly contracts (compensated at a rate only 60 percent of their Korean peers) while walled off from the permanent Korean faculty who benefit from travel, research funding, sabbaticals, etc. Moreover, when hundreds of Korean scholars enjoy such perks at American and other foreign universities, something is obviously amiss.

According to the Samsung Group's chairman, Lee Kun-hee, to succeed globally, Korea must forgo the thought that Korea and being Korean is superior, and foreign specialists must be treated with respect.

Foreign scholars merit equal status
The foreign professor -- colleague or hired hand?
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200206/14/200206142349223599900090109011.html

[Real Reality]

autumneve,

Here a message I received when I tried to write to your address:

I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
[email protected]

Is your e-mail address valid?

[autumneve]

[quote="Real Reality"]autumneve,

Here a message I received when I tried to write to your address:

I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
[email protected]

Is your e-mail address valid?
[/quote]

Sorry it's new, Try it again. I'll be happy to sen you the file with the information.

[Mr. Pink]

Well I have seen jobs for Full Time professors at universities in Korea. However they required Ph.D's and written work. They weren't jobs sloshing some crap ESL junk around. They were actually jobs that you might expect to get back in the West with a Ph.D. However the only universities that I saw asking for these highly educated professors were:

Anyang University
Korea University
SNU
Yonsei University

IMO the teaching that those with MAs do at the universities now really isn't what a "real" professor would do anyways. I don't know how many of you are teaching at the university level, but I know a few people who got their MAs to do it, and they say it is a joke academically. I also know of some people teaching at the Uni level without an MA.

When I see students walking to their university with books like "Communicate" or "Side by Side" etc, I know whatever foreigner teaching those classes isn't do much academically. I would go so far to say you are a glorified hawgwon teacher. More repsect, better pay, better hours, more holidays, but essentially the same job. (comparing to adult hawgwon obviously)

I teach high school students, and I know the stuff I teach isn't academically upto par with what I would be teaching over in North America, as I don't have enough contact time with each student. So yup I am also in the same boat as those uni teachers, except I didn't waste the cash on an MA, and I get about 1month less paid vacation time.

Complain all you want about the "visiting professor" thing. But do you honestly believe you would get tenure back in the West for teaching some low budget EFL class that is over packed, and contains students that don't really give a sh!t? And all that with only an MA?

[TECO]

[Son Deureo!]

[Gord]

[Real Reality]

autumneve,

I sent you another e-mail requesting the list.

[Kwangjuchicken]

The ranking system in Korean colleges/universities is the same as in the USA. Visiting Professor is the lowest rank for someone who is teaching full time at a college or university, next- Reader,next- Lecturer, next- Assistant Professor, next- Associate Professor, highest - Full Professor (usually just called Professor).
I was a Visiting Professor in Korea for 4 years and now am a lecturer.

[mack the knife]

When I used to make the rounds at different universities macking on the honeys, I would call myself "visiting professor". When I got them into the coffee shop I upgraded my status to "lecturer". When they allowed themselves to be dragged into the DVD bang, I was bumped up to "associate professor". Usually from there I slipped easily enough into "full professor".

[sid]

One thing I noticed at the TESOL conference a couple of weeks ago was that the 'professors' from Korean Universities came across as rather bumbling and amateurish compared to their Japanese counterparts. Perhaps it was just the particular individuals I saw making presentations, but I got the impression that on the other side of the East Sea there was more support from their department in terms of putting together interesting courses, doing research and so on.

[Derrek]

[TECO]