Does anyone here know of any sites where one can find job openings for universities or institutes? (Yes, I have the proper degree.) In English or Chinese…both are fine. There are plenty of sites for kindergartens and language schools, but that’s not what I’m looking for.
Try Dave’s ESL cafe on the net (I assume you’re going to be looking for an English teaching job, but they sometimes post Linguistics stuff too). Although you have to plow through a lot of language school posts, many unis show up there if they’re really looking.
You could also try visiting the Web sites of the individual schools. Most of them post job openings via a link on their (usually Chinese-language) web sites. It’s a little more time-consuming but you will probably pick up more opportunities that way.
BTW, when were you hoping to begin teaching? It’s way too late for this year…they were interviewing in June and July for Sept. openings. It’s fairly rare that a school takes people at mid-year, but it’s not unknown, especially if they suddenly get funding for some project or other.
Oh, one other thing you might do woudl be to call up or visit the chairman of an English department at a college or university. That person will sometimes have an idea about whether other institutes might be seeking personnel.
Good luck
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I hold a BA and QTS (Qualified Teacher Status) in the UK. The latter is the professional qualification needed to teach secondary schools in the UK. My specialist subject is English. I’m a South African and Taiwanese passport holder. I’d be very grateful to anyone who could suggest ways of finding a university-teaching position in Taiwan. I’m not sure I’m qualified but I could really do with the experience if I am to further my career abroad. Please email me gbongiovi@hotmail.com.
If you are a UK qualified teacher, why dont you apply to International Schools - the pay and package offered would be much better; if you are in Taiwan now though, this might not apply, they only offer these good packages to people recruited from england. In Taiwan, there is the European School, or there is one in Hsinchu (whose name i cant remember). You could even apply to some American schools or other international schools, especially if down south.
Hi I currently teach in Beijing. I’ve taught mainly oral English in 3 universities on the mainland, I’d like to at some point move to a Taiwanese university but where do they advertise their positions? On the mainland there are countless universities offering teaching positions for English teachers. I take it Taiwanese universities also need English teachers?
You would have thought so…
However, the majority of English teachers who work at universities here seem to be married to Taiwanese people. All of the universities I know of (in Taipei) very rarely employ foreigners because they can’t get working permission/ARC for foreign employees. This seems a bit odd considering how many buxibans there are about here, who seem to have no trouble at all getting work permission for their hords of foreign teachers. If you have a Taiwanese wife/husband ~ then it’s a lot easier finding a job at the universities here (well ~ on top of your teaching qualifications).
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Well, actually, I know several foreign teachers in universities in Taiwan. Because of the over-abundance of Taiwanese with PHDs from abroad, it’s getting a bit less common, but there is still room for qualified people to teach in universities in Taiwan.
At the moment, the trend is toward people with PHDs in related areas: TEFL, Linguistics, Literature, etc. But there are some universities that hire Lecturers with MA degrees. You will have to go to each university website and try to find an address for the Foreign Language department, or for the English Language Center of the university, and then make direct contact yourself.
Many universities are offering “contract” teacher positions, which means you are not part of the official faculty, and the hours are different. Sometimes there are limits on how many times you can renew this contract. I’m not sure how it works, but I know people who have done this and have their Alien Resident Visa based on that job.
Keep in mind that the Ministry of Education is a bit strict about where your PHD or MA diploma comes from. It’s possible to get a fake degree past many cram schools, but the universities are held to a higher standard (I’m not sure if that’s really explains what I mean, but you get the point).
So start your internet search and try to get some contacts with schools here in Taiwan.
By the way, I would just like to add that your marital status with or without a local person has nothing to do with getting a job in a university. That’s ridiculous.
It does sound ridiculous, but if you’re married you don’t need a work permit.
The university I work for was looking for qualified foreign English teachers who already have resident visas ~ such as myself. I was told that they can only take a very limited amount of foreign English teachers on, this was in order to protect Taiwanese English teacher’s jobs; however, a lot of students prefer foreign English teachers so… if the universities can find qualified foreigners with resident visas, then that’s one way for them to get around this problem. There are 2 other foreign teachers at my University in the same situation as myself.
I am not in anyway saying this is fair or suggesting anyone marry a local to get a university job. Do I think it sounds ridiculous? Yes… does this prove your statement about being married to a local having nothing to do with getting a job in a university wrong? Yessss. I’m not proud of it, but there you go.
but you should still need a work permit from the Ministry of Education to have a full-time faculty position in an accredited university here in Taiwan.
Anyway, it is possible for qualified teachers to get positions at universities here in Taiwan.
I think the main point here, in relation to university teaching jobs in the Mainland, is that an MA (often related field) is a prerequisite, and a minimum one in an increasing number of cases. Also, there are far fewer jobs available compared to the Mainland. In China AFAIK it’s basically institutions begging for people to teach, much like the situation in Taiwan 20 years ago.
They advertise on their own university website … mostly in Chinese. PhD is a must nowadays, with the competition bewteeen universities to get students fiercer all the time and government incentive ($$$) to hire Ph D’s.
Hmm, I actually contacted about 15 universities in Taiwan and didn’t get a reply. I’ve got an MA from a good British University and a CELTA diploma as well as 6 years teaching experience.
Not sure if they didn’t contact me because of the hassle it would take for me to come to Taiwan from Beijing, or what? Do these teachers with Phd’s teach bog standard English? From my experience of teaching on the mainland, it’s often the case, that someone holding a Phd in say History, is hardly qualified to teach English. For one they usually have no structure to their lesson and don’t know how to even plan an English based lesson, and two their high qualifications are wasted.
I’d love to move to Taiwan but I don’t want to work at night or be a slave to some ‘business’. I’ve done that before for far too long and they seem to wear the teaching staff into the ground.
Any ideas for what I could do? Maybe I should go back and get a phd in linguistics.
Based on what knowledegable people have said in this thread and many others like it, I think that is your best option.
MAs with appropriate qualifications ARE hired by Taiwan universities for conversational and other English course teaching, but this is not as easily or as readily done as in the past and there are now fewer openings due to the MOE’s insistence on doctoral degrees. Ten years ago, you would have had little difficulty making the move from the Mainland position to a Taiwan university position.
As other posters have mentioned, if you are here in Taiwan, have time to look for these jobs, and it’s not too difficult for the university to hire you, then you can get a university job with an MA. As for foreign English teachers taking local Enlgish teaching jobs - I’ve rarely heard this comment. In fact, foreign teachers may be teaching the courses that locals simply don’t want to teach (too much work involved in the course, or courses that require skills the locals lack).
Tealit.com advertise some uni positions like the following.
Otherwise you could try:
Taiwanted.com
esl99.com
Or contact some of the agencies in Taiwan like footprints or ICAA.
I can’t speak authoritatively about this BUT…a friend of mine, who has an MA degree and teaches at a Uni here in Hsinchu only makes 5000 more NT than I do, working at my Kindy. I know it sounds ridiculous and I’m not bragging by any means. It was just kind of eye-opening to know that your average Kindergarten teacher makes almost as much as a Uni teacher here in Taiwan. The main difference is the benefits. He gets paid summer holidays while I’m strictly no-work, no-pay. So the bennies tip the balance. Otherwise not much difference between a high paying buxiban/Kindy and a Uni teacher here. I only can cite my friend’s example. I can’t say it’s common. But if its true, it might not be worth it and unrealistic to come to Taiwan for a lofty academic title and an anticipated killer salary.
It’d be nominally less soul destroying when you’re 52 though.
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Don’t teach at a university in Taiwan to make $$$. But it might lead to bigger and better things. Specifically, while in Taiwan I managed to get a bunch of editing work/other jobs through the university, some of which were quite lucrative. Since coming back home, I’ve got on at my old university as a sessional instructor, and also picked up classes at a local college. Highly unlikely that these spots would have been offered to me without the post-secondary experience gained while in Taiwan. I assumed as much while in Taiwan, and actually took less per hour of work at the uni for a few years in anticipation of something like this (although with the holiday pay etc. things just about evened out).
Of course, YMMV.
It’s true that salaries for university work are not that much different from kindy or buxiban teaching, but there are some people in the world (and even in Taiwan!) who are not so much concerned with the lining of their pocketbooks as with the development of mind and career. Being in a university community in Taiwan or anywhere in the world is an uplifting experience. It’s a nice lifestyle.
By the way, there are other benefits to teaching in a university. Schedules tend to be slightly less busy and bit more flexible. The holidays are a bit longer too. And even in a normal week, you would have more time for editing or tutoring work. It’s also not “dead-time” on your CV.
I’m not saying this is the only or best career option in Taiwan, but it’s certainly something to look into. It works for many of us.
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