Employment & Prof. Development

Hi there! I've just stumbled upon this site and am very impressed with all of your helpful information. I have a question for you regarding university employment.

I have spent a little time teaching at a university in Jilin as well as universities/colleges in Canada, Australia, and Korea.

I am very interested in getting back to China but have a few professorship jobs in Korea offering about $3000/month for 9 hours teaching and 5 months paid holiday during the breaks. However, I'd looooove to get the same job offer in China as it is much more interesting to live there.

I've been scouring the internet, but all of the jobs seem to be for short-term contracts, which seem to be on the lower end of the pay spectrum.

What kind of offers do you think I could expect with an M.Ed (TESOL), M.A. (Applied Linguistics) and IELTS examiner certification? BTW, I'm Canadian, 28, Caucasian (if that makes a difference).

Thank you so much and keep up the good work!

Kyle

Hi Kyle,

Although I've never seen such positions advertised, I've heard of university positions in China paying as much as 30,000 yuan per month, but those were exclusively at joint-venture (Sino-Western) programs. I did once see an advertisement for a student counselor position at the Ningbo branch of England's Nottingham University and that was also for a salary of 30,000 yuan per month.

Other than working for one of these relatively rare Western-owned universities with branches in China or joint-venture programs, you wouldn't be looking at anything close to $3,000 per month.

Full professors at Jinan University, in Guangzhou, earn anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 yuan per month, depending on age and publications.

In terms of salary, it will be very difficult (if not impossible) to find a position in mainland China comparable to the ones you've been offered in South Korea. The only caveat about South Korea, though, is that those salaries are typically based on full-time attendance, i.e., you will be required to remain in your office for eight hours a day when not teaching. You may want to check that one way or the other.