It’s hard to get a good job in higher education here in Taiwan. As others mentioned the number of students is going down and almost all students do go to college (I think many should in fact not go to college and work) so every year there are fewer students for colleges. The number of schools is going down with a few closing, as result a surplus of teachers. Some leave Taiwan since outside of Taiwan options are much better, which does not mean going far away. Singapore and Hong Kong have good Uni’s are a good nearby option as is China which you mentioned. Not sure if family of other reasons keep you here in Taiwan, but if your open living near Taiwan and not in Taiwan there are much better options. I have had a few people apply for our office jobs with a Phd and mostly do not hire them as they seem over qualified but sometimes keep in touch and few have found good jobs in Hong Kong/ Singapore.
I don’t understand why you are limiting yourself to the Taiwan market. Why not go regional, at the very least? HK, Singapore will pay much more. The strengths of the Taiwan system are not limited to salary, of course. But why would you count on this system alone?
An addendum: you do realize that we are now just heading into the hiring season, right? The fact you’re posting here on forumosa about a lack of response on September 21 also seems off to me. Now’s the time to get going, apply to positions, and get some interviews!
Guy
China is pretty actively looking for teachers. Not sure how free you can teach humanities there though.
I’ve had a quite a few foreign professors in humanities during undergrad so they do exist. I took Latin for a year for example and the instructor was Canadian. Half of the staff at the foreign language and literature department were foreigners and they were doing ESL.
The bottom line is the demand for humanities academics are extremely saturated in pretty much every country. It’s not just Taiwan. Numerous higher education institutions in Europe and Japan are slimming down their humanities departments as well. It’s sad but yeah …
International schools for foreign kids should follow their home ccountry’s law. If the law allows PhD holders to teach, you can teach there.
IB schools or schools with international course for taiwanese kids should follow taiwanese law. You need your home country’s certificate.
I’m a uni instructor with only an ESL-related Masters. If you settle for a buxiban with a PhD, you’re insane. You should be able to find a uni job with a PhD (even if it is in humanities). Possibly you’re aiming too high. I don’t know where you’re applying, but obviously there’s a difference between a private uni (like the one in Kaohsiung I teach at) and an elite uni like National Taiwan University in Taipei. I don’t know where you’re based, but if you are in Taipei, I’d suggest perhaps looking for university work in second-tier cities, Tainan, Taichung, Taoyuan, etc. Taipei unis are notoriously competitive. Another aspect is who you know. Social networking and knowing people already at the uni you’re applying for counts for a lot. My wife knew a prof at the uni I applied to, and helped me get my foot in the door.
Not at all. First thing I was told when starting my master in applied math was: only 2% of math PhD end up working in academia.
I recently encountered two private universities who were having a hard time filling positions. That said, having a connection makes a huge difference.
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.
My home country – and I know it’s the same in some other Western countries – requires a specialised teaching diploma. A PhD isn’t a replacement.
Yes, universities in Singapore, mainland China, HK, not to mention Western countries, all offer much better pay, are ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶s̶t̶i̶g̶i̶o̶u̶s̶,̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶m̶a̶r̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶l̶l̶e̶a̶g̶u̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶d̶e̶n̶t̶s̶, and in my personal experience these places are more congenial to live in than Taiwan. I’m desperate to leave and go and live in a place that judges me not by the color of my skin but by the content of my character… and resume… but it’s not entirely up to me and for family reasons I can’t allow myself to leave just yet…
Academic jobs are scarce everywhere, especially in philosophy, history, languages, literature, etc. Everyone’s heard the urban myths – not without a certain foundation in reality – about poor Dr Schmuck with 15 books to his name from H.U.P and working at Starbucks. Even if you’re an above average PhD grad with publications and even a few book contracts, getting a faculty job or a postdoc in the US still takes luck (at the best schools postdoc positions are awarded to only about 1 percent of the applicants). But I’m applying for jobs/postdocs in Taiwan which – even in Taipei (not that I’ve only applied to unis in Taipei) – are way down the international pecking order. Academia Sinica’s postdoc acceptance rate, if I remember correctly, was above 30 percent. If all of those PhD grads from Taiwanese universities had fantastic publications records – say monographs from Big 10 university publishers – I wouldn’t mind and would have something to aim at. But a cursory look at the publication records for humanities professors at Taiwanese universities will show that most publish almost exclusively in local journals little recognised internationally and apparently closed to submissions from outsiders… Now I’m an outsider looking at flowers through the fog there, and I really don’t understand how things work here. I know of specific examples where people have relied on guanxi, others where the candidate was clearly stronger than I for an ESL position. The universities here don’t seem incentivised to recruit the best possible faculty from around the world. But I hope there are exceptions and will keep on applying (but I’ll be damned if I ever pollute a paper of mine again by trying to publish it in the incestuous sheets of any mongoloid Taiwanese journal)
I have have two degrees from top 25 unis but could care less. Parchment gets you in the door. Once you are in, it is your practical skills that get you further.
I value post hole digging more than a PhD. Academia can be truly boring…my advice…sing giraffe songs and work in the trenches.
I take issue with you dumping on the students and instructors here. I’ve met a lot of brilliant professors here, and a lot of stupid ones in the US. And I’ve taught some wonderful students as well. Plus, if you’re having trouble here, I very much doubt your luck will improve in the other countries and places you mentioned that are in your words “more prestigious.”
Great. !Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua.
I expressed myself rather poorly, and have now crossed out the objectionable lines but not erased them. I didn’t mean to denigrate all Taiwanese professors and students. I’ve read at least one excellent book by a Taiwanese professor and I’m sure there are many talented students in Taiwan.
As for my infelicitous use of “more prestigious,” this should be understood in the context of your reference to Tai Da as an “elite uni” (comparable with my use of “prestigious,” I think) and your suggestion that I might be “aiming too high”:
Caring about a uni’s “prestige” and its “being elite” is of course pathetic. It is nevertheless relevant when looking for a job. You yourself imply that you’d need much stronger academic credentials to land a job at Tai Da than at other, less elite/less prestigious/less highly tanked Taiwanese institutions. But aren’t the best mainland Chinese universities, Singaporean unis, HK unis and good Western universities more elite/more prestigious/more highly ranked than Tai Da? If it were indeed easier as a foreigner to get a job at those unis than at Tai Da, then that fact would require an explanation. Now I don’t know for sure whether that’s the case (although some posters here have suggested that it might be). I might even end up with a job at Tai Da. The whole purpose of this post was to try and find out for myself (and for others who might be in a similar position) what really happens in Taiwanese universities when faculty are hired. Aiming high (or low) requires some sort of a vague standard, and it’d be useful to know whether there is one, what it consists in, and whether it is applies differently to non-Taiwanese residents.
This post relates to academic employment. In this specific context, whether or not someone has a PhD from a respectable university is relevant.
Good for you. But again, this post is about employment in academia. I dig a pretty mean post hole myself, but unfortunately I can’t put that on my resume when applying for academic jobs.
Each to his own. Every job has boring bits. Some people actually like writing books and teaching in their area of expertise.
I like these things too. But it is about balance. Taiwanese faculties are pretty protectionist. When it Taiwan, enjoy the zoo. If academia is your true calling look to the EU or NA.
So let me get this straight… you think OP should abandon any higher ambitions and just slump it at a buxiban? Sounds like a case of “misery loving company” to me.
As someone who has a uni gig, you’d have to pay me double what I’m currently making to go back to “teaching” at a cramschool.
Though you might need to have a host uni or professor.
@jinyu, I’m wondering if you’ve applied to a goodly number of tertiary institutions of various kinds and levels of prestige, and if you haven’t, I’m wondering if you’d consider doing so.