One solution would be to go back to a work sponsored ARC.
Given the changes in demographics and the likely drops in enrollment, is it any surprise? Sucks that benefits are decreasingâŚthatâs where there really is benefit in public sector unionsâŚare there any in Taiwan for professors or English institute foreigners?
Like I said itâs even a problem in the US, vast majority of university professors are adjunct who makes 12 dollars an hour. Teachers in the us get paid shit and have to buy office supplies out of pocket because the school district is too cheap or underfunded to afford it.
Nobody wants to invest in education it seems.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. 
I believe the Taiwanese professors have the option of taking the job as a public sector employee with benefits like tenure and other benefits, but because the fringe benefits have dropped in the past decade or so more of them choose a different track. But Iâm not 100% clear on this
The unqualified people posing as teachers has always been a thing. I had university students that were homeroom teachers (and my coteacher for some classes) many times when I was in the FET program. Many of them were paid by the hour for classes taught, despite the obvious prep work and communication with parents and meetings and everything else that being a homeroom teacher entails. Oh, and they were always the cousin/adult child of friend (etc. guanxi situation) of someone in charge of the school. Meanwhile, tons of people who graduate from Taiwanâs top universities (with teaching degrees) end up working in cram schools âbecause there arenât enough positions at public schoolsâ. Theres some seriously whack shit going on with finances in public education in Taiwan.
(Not that itâs any better in the US. I can name one state where you need only be 18 years of age to be a full time public school teacher at the same salary as someone who has an undergraduate degree and teaching license. Itâs not because there arenât enough teachers. Itâs because people who put in the work to become qualified teachers expect to be paid more than the barista at Starbucks. You can only imagine how the math and reading scores compare to those in states where teachers are required to have more education than the students theyâre teaching)
I know someone who does not have tenure that teaches at a college in the US making just over $21/hr!
Yeah but if you look at the salaries of the high school football coaches that also teach honors English, many of them are making six figuresđ
Probably depends on school district and their actual job role too.
Remember property taxes pay for school so if the area is poor so will the school.
That they donât extend such benefits to foreigners (kind of defeats international solidarity doesnât it?) is a red flag to me. Reiterates that they donât see foreigners as real faculty?
I think there are a variety of situations for various foreign faculty at different universities.
But overall, I donât think they want to attract and retain expensive and high performing foreign faculty that canât integrate well and make them look bad on research and teaching, especially at a time when there are a glut of professors already here who will fill the position.
Yip â the insularism and petty politics. Reminds me of Sayreâs Law: Sayreâs law - Wikipedia
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On 20 December 1973, the Wall Street Journal quoted Sayre as: âAcademic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low.â
**
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I always thought Kissinger said that. Iâve learned something today.
Is that new this year, or is that how itâs always been?
Iâve done the math. At my age, it doesnât add up.
All the childrenâs tuition or a discount?
Do you mean qualified for the national pension system, or is there a special one for teachers that you qualified for at the same time?
They dropped this news around noon on Friday (two days ago) when they finally got around to giving some FETs their contracts for next year. In the past, all FETs were entitled to flight reimbursements for themselves and one âlineal relativeâ or spouse. For next year, theyâre massively limiting it (to people who do not have APRCs or are not married to a Taiwanese person)
I donât know the details. I dont even know what the schoolâs names are.
Im told teachers have a separate pension that pays significantly more to them each month than the national system. I have not looked into the details, but I also know that such things were seriously limited a few years back because the government didnt budget for it correctly and canât afford to make the pay outs. As an FET with a Taiwanese spouse or APRC, they pay into the national pension system on your behalf
Yes, they have a public service pension. Foreigners are not a part of that. The pension your school does pay is the 6% into the labor insurance pensionâŚ
However⌠6% is not enough! Also Taiwanese citizens also have another national pension too (So they get 2) but foreigners only get the one
I think they donât care. In the last few years there has been a change in which countries that they hire from. The MOE has imported a lot of FETs from a country not so far away from Taiwan. The teachers from that country still see what they are offering as very competitive. Others are likely to be crowded out. Since TFETP got started I saw it as a sign too abandon ship. Every year the contract gets worse and worse. TFETP will probably be renamed FFETTP (Filipino Foreign English Teachers in Taiwan Program).
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Thereâs about to be another empty uni position as Iâm quitting my job of almost a decade* and moving back to the west at the end of the year.
*- actually, probably not because of the rapidly contracting enrollment numbers due to the birthrate collapse. But it would be a laugh if it appeared here. And no, I wonât say which uni.
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Wow thatâs a bombshell!
Will you be moving to the US or to Australia?
In either case, I hope this works well for you and your family.
Guy
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