Qingdao University of Science and Technology

Any recent information on this place? I was really excited by the prospect of living in Qingdao, but then I came across this very unfavorable review: http://bit.ly/1tSspGb Definitely doesn't sound good. After talking to the guy I asked if he might send a sample contract and then he emailed me one completely filled out with all my information on it, and it says I would only be reimbursed for my flight if I had satisfactory student evaluations, which something tells me wouldn't happen no matter how good my job performance was.

I don't know anything about that school but from the link it certainly doesn't look like it's worth taking a chance.

Yes the the flight reimbursement based on student evaluation bit is a red flag.

By the way, don't use url shorteners to post things in China because many of them are blocked. Bit.ly is blocked so only members with a v.p.n. can open the link.

Here's the link for those who want to check it out.

Sadly Qingdao is generally considered a good place to visit but a terrible place to work. 

I am fairly sure that one of the universities used to run an employment agency out of their FAO.

I always find it hard to make head or tails of that site.

However, you can pretty much ignore everything that turnoi idiot says.

Of course, the issues they raise may well be helpful in deciding what questions to ask the school, and you should insist on the flight allowance not being linked to student appraisals. Unfortunately students

a) rate everybody ridiculously high, so you could have a 90% approval rating and still be bottom of all the foreign teachers
b) won't really know whether or not you're a good teacher, so it can become a bit of a popularity contest.

Now don't get me wrong. I think foreign teachers should be popular. I just don't think that it's fair to link money to evaluations.

We once didn't renew the contracts of half the teachers, and they subsequently got higher satisfaction marks than all of us who had our contracts renewed.

Another year, the (I think) best foreign teacher at our Uni (at least at the time) had one of the lowest marks because 1 student gave him rock bottom marks for everything. I'm guessing it was a case of unrequited love.

It was just 1 student, but that 1 student probably brought his overall average down about 1% which was about the difference between the best and worst scores.

other students will give low marks because the teacher chooses to go with less than 99% teacher talk time.

Anyway, just say no, (to the reimbursement / satisfaction linkage).

At my school the students blatantly use the "power" of the evaluations with the chinese teachers. I've known classes to be so bold as to tell a new chinese teacher (who's evaluations are very important) that if they make the students do work, everyone will give low evaluations, but if the teacher shows movies every week, they will all give high evaluations. And it works!

Luckily the evaluations have no sway over the foreign teachers. I think it also shouldn't over chinese teachers, but you know, the "system."

In fact, we have a pretty messed up situation here (for the chinese teachers--again foreigners are left out of it.) The students evaluation is important as is an evaluation by your co-workers. And believe it or not, the teachers are just as petty as the students. (okay, maybe you can believe it, haha) Students do it first and if a teacher gets high evaluations from the students, their co-workers give them low marks, just to even the playing field. They don't want anyone to get ahead of themselves, so they insult teachers they might otherwise like. So wrong.

So yeah, I would never sign a contract that gave student evaluations any sway over your job.

Also, I looked into Qingdao quite a bit this semester as I was looking for new jobs. I eventually gave up because the pay for legit schools is miserable and my friend who works there says there are a lit of missionaries who are willing to work for dirt cheap pay just so they can spread "the word." Free housing wasn't even included in some of the contracts! I looked hard and found no legit good job there. I would pass on qingdao in general.

How far does your head have to be wedged up your if you think that "the word" needs to be spread to the howling barbarian wastes of Qingdao?

Thanks for the tip on url shorteners, I'll keep that in mind. I told them that I was unable to accept a contract that tied my flight reimbursement to performance evaluations, haven't heard back but I think I'd be foolish to accept anyway now.

I'm used to living frugally and I don't expect a luxury apartment, but I'm not travelling halfway around the world to live in a shithole either, and I can't think of worse coworkers to have than missionaries.

I have to second Borkya's experience. I spent some time keeping my eyes peeled for a decent job in Qingdao, but it seems so did just about everybody else so it's an employer's market. The "best" I could find there was Qingdao Ocean University [or something along those lines] - 4000 for 16 hours a week. At that rate you'd be better off at a "training center", almost.

Have you tried looking up a list of 2nd or 3rd tier cities in China and seeing if they have a website?

I've been using the Wikipedia listing of universities in each province, or city that I'd be interested in working in. I'm not super, super picky, but I'd rather not live in a greenhouse environment. I prefer a 2nd or maybe 3rd tier city, but I don't want to live somewhere too "authentic". I've sent dozens of emails, so it's not really a matter of not looking at enough places.

For what it's worth QUST is at least offering 5500 RMB, but there was no mention of overtime anywhere in the contract.

Funnily enought QUST sent me a job offer yesterday having kept my email on file since 2010.I don't take that as  a good sign since I have had no contact with them since I originally mailed them my CV back then before we came over to China.I figure they really don't have candidates beating their door down... but I really didn't investigate them that thoroughly.Just sayin'

Piglet, that does smack of desperation...I'm definitely going to keep looking.

I applied to a few schools in Shandong and got turned down immediately for having too much experience

I would take a pass on a school where student evaluations are linked to airfare. I worked at a college in Wuxi and you received a score but the only comments they listed were the negative ones. I had a great score but the comments listed were that I didn't show any DVD's.

The guy I was dealing with at QUST replied trying to weasel his way out of looking bad on the flight thing, saying that in years past they have just included the 10000 RMB reimbursement with July's salary, and that I could add an amendment clarifying that. He also gave me the email of a current American teacher there and said I could ask her for pictures of the apartment, since I'd be moving into hers. A little googling has revealed that she is probably a missionary type    Sure, she's leaving anyway, but I'm sure there are more of her.

Generally speaking, and for future reference, is it common for them to request you to make revisions/amendments to the contract? I would have thought he'd make necessary changes and send me another one.

Generally speaking, and for future reference, is it common for them to request you to make revisions/amendments to the contract? I would have thought he'd make necessary changes and send me another one.

My uni has a 'standard' contract that combines the 'boiler plate' SAFEA contract and things usually included in an appendix.

The contract states "The Appendix is an indispensable part and carries the same weight... blah, blah". However, there was no appendix... so I wrote my own - clearing up any ambiguities and specifying things I'd negotiated. Every year, I modify my appendix somewhat.

So, in this case, since there is an amendment (or appendix, as I guess other places call it), and one of the points says that I will only be reimbursed if I have satisfactory student evals, how do I actually go about changing it? Just cut that part out, or add an addendum at the end saying to disregard it? I'm sorry if I sound dense, but I'm a bit confused as to how to change it.