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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Any idea why the universities in beijing pay dirt?
11 years 49 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Don't universities in China pay dirt pretty much anywhere, unless you're working for a joint venture program?
derek:
That's my understanding too. When I worked at a Uni I got one raise in three terms and even then my salary was not up to standard in my opinion. Since I left there and started working in a training school (no kids here) my salary has quadrupled due to the fact that there is not near as much red tape, so changes can be made much faster. By that, I mean I can be more involved in the day to day operation of the business and get compensated accordingly. Now, my schedule never tops 18 hours per week so I can accept private students in my free time.
GuilinRaf:
Training school without children? Wow! How did you find that???!!!
I have wondered about that myself. For primary and secondary schools, I have been offered twice what i make in a university. However, as I am not fond of children I prefer to make 50% less than to spend an entire day with kids.
Maybe it is that so many WANT to teach university and so few want to teach primary/secondary school? I would guess it is a supply and demand problem.
Was offered 4k yuan to work at a university there, however already make 6k here in shenyang, both provide accomodation, shenyang one even provides lunch on working day. does 4k sound like what the universities generally pay there?
4k would be an absolutely terrible salary for Beijing. Maybe in a developing part of China it is sub-standard for a public university (yet still low), but for a city like Beijing where it may take around 10k for you to live comfortably, it's bad.
NAH, if they were paying you dirt you'd be living outside eating off the ground. I doubt they pay dirt if your living in a furnished room and your eating at nice expensive restaurants buy ing apple products every other weekend and taking 15 trips a year....
yes foreign english teachers at universities should be paid 12k a month , free housing, flight reimbursement to work 14 hours a week and have 4 months off a year.
The Chinese see it as prestigious to work at a university as a professor. Also there are more teachers who are young men trying to get into these positions for exposure to the young women in the universities hence greater supply of labor and lower wages. Simple economics really. Kindergarten jobs pay more...Why because there are more Native English speaking men in China who don't want to have to put up with screaming kids.
They want you to pay your dues.
GuilinRaf:
As Jim Burton once said: "When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye, and asks you if you paid your dues; you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have you paid your dues, Jack? Yessir, the check is in the mail."
The pay in universities is low because the contract hours are lower. In most cases the university contracts are less than 20 hours a week, with no office hours. University holidays are also the longest in the public system. Also reflected in the low salary is the free rent, utilities and subsidised meals that most universities provide. The bosses of these establishments know that the short hours and long holidays will encourage their teachers to moonlight in the private sector. So, if you want to work a forty hour week, you could work up to twenty or more hours in the private sector. These moonlighting jobs generally pay about 150 Yuan per hour. So you could easily add 12000 a month to your average monthly university salary of 6000, giving you 18000 a month. You would be hard-pressed to find a non-university job, requiring a full forty hour week, that would pay you that much, and many of them would not provide the free accommodation either. So, taking the whole picture into consideration, the university gig is really quite a good one. Plus you will have no hassle with visas and getting paid on time at a good state-run university. These are the reasons why the university positions are the most sought after in most Chinese cities..
MissA:
I think your argument is generally a good one, but there is one flaw I must point out... 20 hours working and 20 hours contact (i.e. in the classroom) are not the same thing. If you were working 20, paid, contact hours in a private language school as well as holding down a university job of 20 odd contact hours, then with planning and unavoidable office BS your actual work hours would significantly exceed a forty hour work week.