I am interested. But will they take an old fogie of 55? Currently at uni on the mainland,with non Native Speaking Hubby in tow. Got MA,teaching cert and 30 years of EFL experience.
I can’t speak to that particular job, but there are certainly plenty of older people teaching at the universities: I personally think that university teaching is the only way to remain sane as a teacher in Taiwan for more than a decade or so! I believe that mandatory retirement is at 65, although I don’t know if that’d be a factor in hiring; I’ve never heard of any age requirements to apply for university jobs (as opposed to cram school jobs), although who knows what’ll happen in interviews.
In general, getting a fulltime job in Taipei with just a Master’s is kind of difficult these days, but 30 years of experience will certainly help.
You certainly have a chance of a job, especially if you have a lot of experience at university level, but there are not many jobs and a lot of applicants. You will need to be available for interviews in Taiwan.
I can’t speak to that particular job, but there are certainly plenty of older people teaching at the universities…[/quote]
I agree - your age is not likely to be a significant factor.
However, I wonder whether not having a Lecturer Certificate (講師證書) issued by the Taiwanese MoE would disadvantage you.
AFAIK, the application process takes a couple of months (at least) to complete, which leads me to suspect that it is less than straightforward and that, other things being equal, universities would generally prefer a candidate who holds a certificate, since it saves them from having to apply for one for you.
As far as your 30 years teaching experience is concerned, I would say that most Taiwanese universities nowadays will be more concerned about the length of your publication record than the length of your teaching experience.
It’s hiring season for the Fall semester this time of year. Is the situation still grim? Anything changed?
Is it at all possible to get hired from overseas (I have an MA in English and nearly 10 years’ experience in Taiwan), or is being physically available for an interview in Taiwan a must? That would indeed be the dealbreaker, as going to the expense and time of flying all the way over to Taiwan with no guarantee of a job would be a waste of resources. Working for a buxiban is completely out of the question, as that nearly drove me insane.
[quote=“Quentin”]It’s hiring season for the Fall semester this time of year. Is the situation still grim? Anything changed?
Is it at all possible to get hired from overseas (I have an MA in English and nearly 10 years’ experience in Taiwan), or is being physically available for an interview in Taiwan a must? That would indeed be the dealbreaker, as going to the expense and time of flying all the way over to Taiwan with no guarantee of a job would be a waste of resources. Working for a buxiban is completely out of the question, as that nearly drove me insane.[/quote]
Recently very few people have been voluntarily leaving their jobs. The only guys I know who have left did so because their contracts weren’t renewed.
I’m not sure about applying outside of Taiwan. An interview would be required, but you might be able to negotiate a Skype interview. TBH I wouldn’t rate your chances of landing a gig without being in Taiwan. Worth a try, though.
Also, check up about whether they are still accepting master’s degrees. My gut feel is they are, but I have heard that the MOE are claiming to turn down applications under Ph.D. What I’ve heard and what’s true don’t often converge. At least you definitely have the right MA.
Ive gotten a few offers from local unis here and I am still working on my PhD.
I have turned them all down though (at least the full time positions…now they cold call/email me when a position comes up…guess I got on their call since I interviewed when I first got here, but also turned down the position). The pay is total ass for the hours you have to put in. My hourly pay for privates…and shoot, even the chain adult buxibans are way more than what the unis offer.
The part time positions that come up sometimes pay very well per hour though.
But that is Taichung, I dunno if Taipei is better.
I
HungKuang University in Taichung is looking for someone with a B.A. or M.A. to teach next school year. More information here:
I am currently employed at one of the private universities. I don’t mean to make it sound like a rant by a disgruntled employee, but here’s a picture of how life can be like if you’re with a bad university. By “private” university, I mean it is run like a business. They have no interest in “education” and they squeeze their foreign teacher dry with unpaid responsibilities, e.g. I have to go out to high schools to promote the uni and I have “sign up quotas” to meet.
First, (maybe it’s just me), the uni promised me 12 months with 1 month bonus at the interview. When I got to signing the contract, it was 10 months and sorry we can’t give you the full bonus (which is also subjected to performance review) because we pay out in January and you won’t have been here for a year. I was like fine, I’ll live with that. I was tired of the buxiban environment and wanted to get out of it. I thought I would just grab the first uni job I was offered and not think about the money. They promised me $800 for every hour overtime–that amount has been reduced to $570 and I haven’t seen a dollar of it yet 4 months into the contract. Last month, they said they’d pay me end of Oct. When I asked yesterday, they said, you misheard. It’s end of Nov.
Okay, sure, we’re in a Chinese-speaking country and it’s my fault if I don’t speak the language well enough. All the faculty meetings (English department too!) and all the paperwork and intranet things have to be done in Chinese. Even your class syllabus has to be typed in Chinese because the person auditing on the intranet can only read Chinese (I argued with the admin and, and lolz surprise surprise, it didn’t help. I was like this makes no sense–why would I put something on MY syllabus that I don’t understand? It’s not really my problem if they can’t read English). I spend a lot more time than the Taiwanese teachers doing paperwork because of my crap Chinese. My fault. But if you’re thinking of applying to a university job and you don’t have a high fluency in Chinese, be prepared to deal with that.
The foreign teacher gets the odd schedule that no one wants. I get all the early morning and late evening classes. I don’t see anybody from my faculty most of the time. This is fine, but I’m a new teacher. It would help immensely if I could bump into more experienced teachers for quick questions, wouldn’t it? I never do. I asked for help and all I got were promises that they’d do something about it. I figured out most things on my own now and I don’t bother asking anymore. It’s nothing new but somehow they also keep forgetting to tell the foreigner until it’s the deadline and everything becomes the “You must do it today by 10am”. I don’t mind if they let me know in Chinese, but they have to tell me if they need me to do something by a certain time.
I went through 3 hours of training last week how to promote the uni at high schools and honestly because of my Chinese skills (my fault) I understood only about half of what they said. Mid-November, I have to start visiting high schools. I have to get a certain number of students, including 2 disabled or autistic students, and 2 “foreign” students from the schools that I’m in charge of. They never told me any of that during the job interview. I told my chair that I don’t want to do it. He said all the teachers have to do it and started saying he has seven schools on his list blah blah…
I also get saddled with extra responsibilities like proofreading midterms for other professors because I’m the native speaker. I refused at first, but the chair intervened so I had to do it, unpaid, for 14 classes. But these “professors” have PhDs and they are teaching their own classes—how are they not capable of proofreading their own midterms for freshman and sophomore classes?
And students. I know it’s too early to dismiss their potentials but the majority of English majors in “technology” universities are there because they couldn’t get into anything else with their high school grades. They have no idea what’s going on, and they have absolutely no concept of verb-tense agreements whatsoever, and they sleep in class. I know a good teacher should ideally be able to help them—in a class of over 60 students with varying levels and motivations, it is difficult to do much if anything at all. If you’re coming in with passion to teach, it will die out after a few months of talking to yourself while your students sleep, chat and play with their cell phones.
The plus side is, I can get off campus if I’m not teaching. I can go home for a nap in the middle of the day. And because I am teaching at a university, it’s much easier to land part-time company contracts which pay a hell lot better. But as soon as I find another job, I’m gone. If you see another university posting in the near future, think before you apply.
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[quote=“jenconcept”] I have to go out to high schools to promote the uni and I have “sign up quotas” to meet.
[/quote]
There are an incredible 165 tertiary sector institutions in Taiwan and student numbers are about to plummet. There’s been a concerted effort to attract foreign students over the past few years from China, Myanmar, Mongolia, and a host of small African and Central American countries. However, it won’t be enough to prevent a lot of smaller unis closing in the next few years.
On the plus side this could result in an increase in the demand for English instructors as more courses will be taught in English. All the EBBA/MBBA/International Business style courses are an obvious sign of this.
Serve out your time at the uni you are currently at and in the meantime get in contact with foreign lecturers at other unis. There are some good unis out there.
Hello Jenconcept
would you mind to PM me for further discussion about working in private TW uni
Because I am going to a uni now for a job similar to yours
Thank you so much!!
I teach at a private uni. I guess it really depends on the financial backing of the school. If they are not in a strong financial position, this trickled down to the treatment of foreign teachers. You will be seen as more of a resource to be maximized, rather than resource to be cultivated. My uni is more the later with decent pay but that doesn’t mean a lot of dumb requirements and meetings have disappeared. But thankfully they aren’t too much to drive me insane. But if you want to head into more admin roles for clubs or being a 導師, then stupid tasks come with the territory. The Taiwan university system seems to get immense joy out stamping documents and holding meetings so they can later stamp more documents.
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Thank you for your information
I heard that there are two types of contract for an assistant professor level
one is permanent contract (專任) which they hire you and give you 5 years to pass to associate professor level (based on their requirement), once you get the Assoc. Prof, then they cannot fire you
The other is Project based contract: which they renew it every one or two years. And they can fire you any time.
What is yours?
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Hi @vanhoivanbinh I’m also a private uni teacher. I’m full time, but on a yearly contract that’s subject to renewal depending on my evaluations (thankfully I’ve been here 4 years and they’re always strong enough to keep me on board for another year… not the greatest job security though). I got my job here with a Masters in 2016, but I recently heard a rumor that my uni is no longer taking full-timers without a PhD anymore. Things are getting tougher in the work environment due to declining enrollment as a result of a plunge in birth-rates that happened around 2004 to 2005 (this would be the freshman year of 2022-2023). There’s even talk of lay-offs. So just keep in mind that even with qualifications, it’s not easy to break into right now. But if you have a PhD, you definitely have a good shot. If you only have a Masters it’ll be much harder now. Also one more thing to keep in mind is the deadline for Fall semester applicants is around now. It’s usually May or June at the latest. So you need to hustle if you want a Fall start. Good luck!
EDIT: Do you already have the job, or are you applying? It wasn’t completely clear.
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I’m guessing each university is different. I have no requirement to climb the ladder. They want me to, as it increases their status, but I don’t have to go higher. It’s actually hard for me to see how this really benefits me for my personal situation now, though. That said, each teacher’s situation is different, so it really depends on background and type of research/output you produce after teaching hours. Very interesting what you say, though…never knew some put this type of stipulation on teachers. I’d have to check the regulations at my uni, but I go under review by the university after this first year (which they already informed me I will be passing…interesting…), then I believe move to bi-annual reviews, then at some point progress to a 5-year review. It seems, though, they either like you or don’t, and all decisions lean with this feeling. Very little evidence-based decision making. They take reviews from students after each semester, but overly emotional 18-year-olds can only provide so much input…but my uni seems to give you the benefit of the doubt if you are liked by admin. It seems to be more about if you get on in THEIR system, not if you are actually teaching effectively. If they don’t like you, well, it’s like the world is collapsing at the slightest mistake you make. Already witnessed this in another teacher. Highly unfair. They can make my life hell at any moment for sure if they want, so same difference really to firing. I recently started at this university this past fall after teaching in my home country for many years. So, I’m not 100% certain, but from what you are saying it seems there’s a bit of variation from private uni to private uni in this area.
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Yah, from what you are saying I seem to be an unusual exception. Loads of people have told me what you are saying so true, though.
I actually applied to my current job from my home country with only a master’s degree. Wasn’t in Taiwan…didn’t think they’d give me the time or day. Got an interview, flew to Taiwan, nailed the interview and was offered the job on the spot. For my position, I think it not only came down to the degree but also what sort of research or work I had previously done, too. But that said, Taiwan seems to uphold a degree as much more important in many ways over output or even experience.
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How long have you been with your current uni?
I am working in industry here in Taiwan for almost 7 years
Working hard, earning is good but the working hours is nightmare, 12 hours per day for long run.
That is why I want to try new Academic environment, when working hard too but you are on your own, much loosen in time control per working day. How do you think about my imagination ^^
PS: I’m just starting the interview process