Experiences Teaching at a University?

Hi Everyone,

I am just curious what it is like teaching at a university?

I see advertisements.  On one hand, the pay per month seems low, at most 15,000 RMB per month.

But, what are the other benefits:

a.  Few teaching hours?
b.  No lesson prep or grading?
c.  Prestige?
d.  Ability to make money with tutoring or red envelopes?
e.  Ability to take side jobs during the nights and weekends?

2.  Any tips on the university job?  My guess is just contact the university and apply directly, rather than use agents?  Or, like public high schools, is it the law they must work with crooked management companies?

I never had a uni gig in China.  I did see reports - Hours can vary wildly from place to place.  Some schools give you a curriculum, thus minimizing prep time.  Others expect you to create your own lessons.  Policies on how to grade and what sort of exams are give also are all over the map.

Basically, what you want to do is check the contract carefully and also try to talk to FTs who either are or were teaching at the same school.

I loved it and love the students but that's because I am a lazy sod and I hate little kids.

A university job isn't a real teaching position. It's a placeholder for private teaching. It provides you with a place to stay, a residence permit, and a small number of hours per week to go into a room and mind 30 to 50 partially-adult "children". They are in on the ruse too so don't horrify them with too many demands, like adequate assignments or any particular academic performance. They'll probably appreciate some attempt to mimic the supposed syllabus, but don't push it too far. Meanwhile, start collecting private teaching gigs. You're looking eventually for something like 3 to 5 times your stated salary in private hours so one needn't be too scandalised by how little the job supposedly formally offers. And one should not assume that only foreign staff do this. Literally everyone on staff will be using their cushy university gig in the same way unless they have it as a placeholder for something else. It's fun. You get to play with not-dumb kids, but the truth of your position is revealed by how wholly divorced every aspect of your job is from any kind of maintained academic standard. You won't even know what learning objectives your school has for your kids. (Because, pssst, it has none.)

Signed,

ex-naive person

What he said.

I third that.

My experience was not typical. I taught at a grad school -- we had two foreign instructors for English academic writing. We were allowed to fail students, and then they'd have to repeat the course the following year (yes, students really did fail). I had a great support from my department head, and the office staff was helpful if I needed anything. Because I took the staff bus to work every day, I had a great excuse in case I was late (my boss was on the same bus), but it only happened a few times.

Pay was good for the amount of time I worked. I taught 6 classes per week (master's classes met once every other week, PhD class was once a week, so I taught the same master's class for two weeks straight). Grading took a long time because I gave students an essay every class. There was a ton of plagiarism, and I was allowed to give students a 0 for those assignments. Including office hours, I only worked about 20 hours per week. I frequently took naps on the sofa in my private office.

Each class was good and bad. Getting students to participate was like pulling teeth. I just called out names and forced them to answer questions, reminding them that it was part of their grade. There were usually a few good students in each class who were willing to do the work.

Really interesting to read these posts and feel the resonance with my own uni job experience!  Due to the common lack of oversight and academic stringency to the whole affair, it sure is easy to just end up 'coasting' the main gig.  However, I must add that this freedom can work the other way:  if you really want to keep your teaching skills sharp, there is nothing stopping you from putting a lot of effort into the classes.  You just need to be very self-motivated to do so, because as others have pointed out here, the working environment around you doesn't always inspire it!