The good news is that the university where I work is going to make an application to the MoE to have me promoted to assistant professor.
At the same time they are moving me to a newly established department.
The new director of the new department (who is a nice guy, but doesn’t give the impression he quite knows what he is talking about) told me that I would have to teach at least one subject from my field in order for the promotion to be approved.
I mentioned this to the acting dean of the college, who seemed rather vague about the matter, and said that he didn’t think it was a rule that was strictly enforced.
Has anybody heard of such a rule, or experienced its application?
Hm… it sounds as if teaching something from your field is a problem for you or at least undesirable. Is that the case?
OTOH, i’ve always thought that this is exactly how things work at real schools and universities - so you got me confused: what am i missing here?
But since such a course is not currently offered, wouldn’t it first have to be approved by the MoE before it could be taught? (Isn’t that the case with all courses taught at Taiwanese univeristies?)
[quote=“adikarmika”]Teaching a course in my field would be desirable.
But since such a course is not currently offered, wouldn’t it first have to be approved by the MoE before it could be taught? (Isn’t that the case with all courses taught at Taiwanese univeristies?)[/quote]
I think i understand now that you are concerned about a possible (perhaps substantial) delay - so… if the people who should know can’t tell you anything about this, then who can? Anyway, sorry, i wouldn’t even know whether a department that is to be newly established (or any department for that matter) has to go through any outside approval process for individual courses (involving the MoE or such) before those can be offered.
But i suppose there are some people around here who have taught or are teaching at a university, and i hope they have some information (i thought i could perhaps help out but the issue you brought up is outside of my horizon, sorry… )
At a ‘proper’ university, promotion requires teacher to have met certain requirements.
Even after, promotion depends on the university and if they want to have you promoted.
Universities in Taiwan tend not to hire foreigners as full-time faculty.
Even if that foreigner has a PhD, they are hired as 1-year contracted teachers.
[quote]At a ‘proper’ university, promotion requires teacher to have met certain requirements.
Even after, promotion depends on the university and if they want to have you promoted.[/quote]
This is accurate information. When I went through the process, my case needed to be approved at various levels from the department all the way up to a university-level committee.
[quote]Universities in Taiwan tend not to hire foreigners as full-time faculty.
Even if that foreigner has a PhD, they are hired as 1-year contracted teachers.[/quote]
Marshmallow21: I am not sure where you are getting information to make such a blanket statement. If as a candidate you are qualified, and if your publications are strong, and if you can contribute and want to contribute to a particular university community, then your application will be considered carefully. If one or more of these conditions don’t match, things are not likely to move forward (and without a PhD in hand things won’t move forward at all). There are lots of things that can go wrong in the hiring process here (example: external assessments of research output that can make or break an application) but being a foreigner is not going to be the determining factor here–at least in my experience.
Of course, one certainly needs a substantial publication record to get promoted to associate professor, but I’m only trying to get promoted to assistant professor.
I’ve got the PhD, and, although my job here is to teach English, my doctorate is not in applied linguistics.
I do have a master’s in applied linguistics, but I’m not planning to research or publish in that area.
On my PhD certificate, it simply states “Asian Studies” as my field, and I would be happy to teach a course in, say, Pop Culture in Asia, if that were a requirement for promotion to assistant professor.
But, as I said earlier, there isn’t anything offered in my department that could be classified as a course in “Asian Studies”, and so I my question was: is teaching such a course a condition for promotion? Is it a condition that is actually enforced?
afterspivak: It sounds like you have gone (or are going through) the promotion process. If so, was this rule about teaching a course in your field applied in your case? Did anyone ever mention it to you?
Yes I went through the promotion process from assistant to associate professor at a national university in 2007. There was no “rule” about teaching a course in my field–this was simply part of my job anyways. Looking back at your original post, I think your acting dean is on the ball about this. If your chair wants you to teach such a course, I would view this as a sign of interest rather than some sort of onerous requirement (providing of course this doesn’t dump massive overtime hours onto your lap!). It’s an interesting challenge to see how the materials we study work in the classroom.
You should look at it the other way, if you can create and teach a course in your core expertise it will give you more choices in the future i.e. you have become a lecturer in your own field also.
Thanks for the responses, though it’s still not clear whether I have to teach a course in the field of “Asian Studies” in order to get promoted to assistant professor. I’ll add some postings to the thread later if I find out more information myself.
I have another related question, which I hope somebody out there can answer (if not, perhaps the moderators could move the thread to “Working in Taiwan”).
My PhD supervisor always told me that I would get much more mileage from rewriting my thesis as a book rather than a series of articles. I mentioned to a colleague yesterday that I was working on a book, and she told me that “in Taiwan it’s better for your promotion to publish articles.”
What!? I didn’t ask her her how many articles in peer reviewed international journals would equal a book published through a reputable university press, but I got the impression from her that it would be less than six (a number that was mentioned to me by an American accademic recently).
Anybody have any experience with this issue? I know it does depend a lot on the discipline, but I’m talking humanities here, where I thought (until yesterday) that it was always better to publish a book if you can. Perhaps because the above-mentioned Taiwanese colleague’s field was management, she thought that I should be trying to write articles rather than a book.
I think there are perhaps two or even three books (or at least monographs) in my thesis, and I’m already thinking of a well-known publisher in Japan who I think would be interested. But if Taiwanese univeristies don’t place much value on publishing a book, I could certainly make life easier for myself by writing articles instead.
Hi there… if you are teaching English and your doctorate is NOT English related, you cannot get promoted using that doctorate for teaching English.
Part of the requirements for promotion require you to be teaching a subject related to your doctorate. A master’s degree in that subject does not count.
Sorry.
Of course, one certainly needs a substantial publication record to get promoted to associate professor, but I’m only trying to get promoted to assistant professor.
I’ve got the PhD, and, although my job here is to teach English, my doctorate is not in applied linguistics.
I do have a master’s in applied linguistics, but I’m not planning to research or publish in that area.
On my PhD certificate, it simply states “Asian Studies” as my field, and I would be happy to teach a course in, say, Pop Culture in Asia, if that were a requirement for promotion to assistant professor.
But, as I said earlier, there isn’t anything offered in my department that could be classified as a course in “Asian Studies”, and so I my question was: is teaching such a course a condition for promotion? Is it a condition that is actually enforced?
afterspivak: It sounds like you have gone (or are going through) the promotion process. If so, was this rule about teaching a course in your field applied in your case? Did anyone ever mention it to you?[/quote]
Sorry forgot to add… you have to have taught (fully) in the relevant subject for I think around 5 years to qualify, plus relevant publications, etc to qualify.
[quote=“marshmallow21”]… if you are teaching English and your doctorate is NOT English related, you cannot get promoted using that doctorate for teaching English.
Part of the requirements for promotion require you to be teaching a subject related to your doctorate. A master’s degree in that subject does not count.[/quote]
Not quite the answer I wanted to hear.
If what you say is true, my application for promotion will not be approved.
What you’re saying is that an English teacher at a university will be stuck at the level of lecturer despite having a PhD, unless:
the PhD is in applied linguistcs, or
he or she manages to teach a course directly related to the field in which they did their doctorate.
But how come there are so many local and foreign assistant professors (and above) teaching English at Taiwanese universities, despite not having doctorates in applied linguistics?
Did they all teach courses in their particular fields in order to get promoted?
Or, as my acting dean seemed to think, is it a rule that is not strictly applied?
(This may be a question of concern for others who are thinking of teaching English at a univerisity, since, as has been pointed out elsewhere on the forum, as a lecturer you really are overworked and underpaid. It’s much better to be an assistant professor.)
I am not sure which University you are mentioning in particular but for English teaching, PhD in English or similar includes: Linguistics, English literature, TESOL, Education, etc.
At a ‘proper’ uni, you will not see any Assistant Professor that is teaching in the English department with any other degree than the one mentioned above. If they are indeed from another discipline, they must either have good connections or have been with that uni for like a million years.
I’ve seen potential applicants with PhD’s in different disciplines (e.g. nutrition) trying to apply for English teaching positions at university level. Those people will not even get asked for an interview.
[quote=“adikarmika”][quote=“marshmallow21”]… if you are teaching English and your doctorate is NOT English related, you cannot get promoted using that doctorate for teaching English.
Part of the requirements for promotion require you to be teaching a subject related to your doctorate. A master’s degree in that subject does not count.[/quote]
Not quite the answer I wanted to hear.
If what you say is true, my application for promotion will not be approved.
What you’re saying is that an English teacher at a university will be stuck at the level of lecturer despite having a PhD, unless:
the PhD is in applied linguistcs, or
he or she manages to teach a course directly related to the field in which they did their doctorate.
But how come there are so many local and foreign assistant professors (and above) teaching English at Taiwanese universities, despite not having doctorates in applied linguistics?
Did they all teach courses in their particular fields in order to get promoted?
Or, as my acting dean seemed to think, is it a rule that is not strictly applied?
(This may be a question of concern for others who are thinking of teaching English at a univerisity, since, as has been pointed out elsewhere on the forum, as a lecturer you really are overworked and underpaid. It’s much better to be an assistant professor.)[/quote]
[quote=“marshmallow21”]I am not sure which University you are mentioning in particular but for English teaching, PhD in English or similar includes: Linguistics, English literature, TESOL, Education, etc.
At a ‘proper’ uni, you will not see any Assistant Professor that is teaching in the English department with any other degree than the one mentioned above. If they are indeed from another discipline, they must either have good connections or have been with that uni for like a million years.[/quote]
I think the assistant and asscociate professors I see around me teaching English with backgounds in unrelated disciplines are the ones who have been here for ages. Unfortunately, the ones with Master’s degrees in applied linguistics are all stuck at the level of lecturer, despite being, IMO, better qualified teachers.
Many people are probably not aware of this, so it’s good that you have pointed it out. I myself used to think that as long as you were a native speaker with a PhD in something, then a university somewhere would give you an English teaching job. But it seems this is very rarely the case. Looks like I will in fact have to teach a course in my field to get promoted to assistant professor. Hopefully, the promotion can be approved on the basis of the course being planned, rather than having to wait until I’m actually teaching it.
)
