My University Teaching Contract

[Tarepanda]

I was recently hired to teach at a University in Beijing that is run by the Ministry of Education. They've sent me the contract and here are the important parts;

Salary: 3200rmb per month (before tax)

Contract length: Sept 1 - July 31, 2012

Plane ticket: up to 9,000rmb (one time settlement)

Hours: 14-16 hours per month (including office hours); required to participate in any extracurricular activities such as the English corner, judging English competitions, make one speech open to the public, help Chinese teachers with their research, ect. without being compensated

Teaching: Freshmen English writing; about 4 classes with 30-40 students each

Room and board: will provide a 2000rmb Free apartment with kitchen, living room, furniture, bedroom and bathroom. they will give me an electricity stipend of 200rmb per month for utilities. Internet is free of charge

Winter vacation: I will receive my normal monthly salary

I may be asked to go to their satellite campuses: in these cases, they'll pay for transportation fees

Health insurance: 100,000rmb policy will be provided by the school. Can be used only at the campus' clinic or Peking University's hospital

Life insurance: 400,000rmb

Breach of contract: If I breach the contract or decide to go back home, I owe the university $800-3000 USD

Here are my qualifications:

Bachelors of Arts: International Business-China with honors (May 2011)

Work experience: six years of tutoring Chinese students in English college courses

Taken many linguistics courses that pertain especially to Chinese and English

Here's what I'm thinking:

I was promised 3500 rmb a month plus 500-600rmb extra for teaching at their satellite campuses, but the contract just says 3200rmb a month. I've heard from some professors that they get 250rmb a month for utilities, but my contract is for 200rmb (will this be enough during the winter and summer?).

I'm afraid that my salary of 3200rmb a month might not be enough to make ends meet if I want to afford food, transportation, various attractions/activities in beijing, a bike, ect. I don't plan to live like I'm in America, but I would like to make ends meet and have a little money left over to put aside in an emergency fund. Do you think I can live reasonably comfortably under these conditions? Any advice?

[skylee]

I don't know anything about teaching English in China. But the remuneration seems to be quite low in my opinion. RMB 6000 per month for teaching university English? (But then you will only need to work 16 hours per week.) Why do you want this job? Because you want to live in China?

Sorry for asking unhelpful questions. But at least this will bring the thread up.

[Tarepanda]

Thanks for your reply, Skylee! I thought my salary seems low as well, but I think since they're including housing, utilities, and airfare, it's a decent salary for a year in China. The reason why I want to go to China is to work on my Chinese. In addition, I'd love to see more of China as well. I think as long as I can make ends meet over there, I'll be satisfied.

Anyways, long story short, I was waiting for some feedback on my contract, but since I'm a new member on chineseforum, apparently I have to wait awhile to have my post approved then posted. I already went ahead and signed this contract. Wish me luck and thank you again for your input!

[El Macho]

EDIT: I see that you signed the contract. Sorry for the below, which may freak you out a bit. I think you're definitely going to find that, when you're not working, you'll have motivation to work on your Chinese.

Freshmen English writing; about 4 classes with 30-40 students each

So that's 120-160 essays you are going to have to mark throughout the semester. That will eat up hours and hours of your free time, meaning that you are working much more than the contracted 14-16 hours.

satellite campuses

Beijing is enormous, and universities often have satellite campuses that are located far away from the main campus. You could literally be commuting 2.5 hours round trip.

I teach in Beijing now. My university job pays 5,000/month, and I also work at the university's corporate training centre. 5,000 by itself is basically enough on which to get by and live comfortably, but I wouldn't often go out to the bars or be able to take very nice trips. I can't imagine trying to get by on 3,200 unless you are planning to only eat in the school cafeteria (not a bad idea, actually) and stay at home all the time. In this regard, it might be good for improving your mandarin, since you'd have nothing else to do.

[anonymoose]

The salary is very low, but then for

Hours: 14-16 hours per month (including office hours)

which works out at about 150 RMB per hour, that's reasonable (although it shouldn't be difficult to find better paying jobs).

The worrying part is

required to participate in any extracurricular activities such as the English corner, judging English competitions, make one speech open to the public, help Chinese teachers with their research, ect. without being compensated

If this is included in your contractual working hours, that's not too bad, but if not, and the contract doesn't specify how much time you are to spend on these extracurricular activities, then there is potential for you to get reamed here.

[evasiege]

By 14-16 hours per month I assume you mean 14-16 periods per week, which works out to about 12 hours a week of actual teaching at most. Throw in English corner (a couple hours), prepping for classes (30 min to an hour each day), if you have to travel frequently to further locations, maybe an extra 5 hours per week on travel. Possibly a couple more hours doing whatever they ask you and your looking at around 25 hours at most a week, or 5 hours a day average (and this is high for universities I think), dealing with things related to your school. Now the salary is low, but you can easily fit side jobs into your free time, and that is the key. It's not about simply what pays the highest, but what pays the highest for the amount of work done. You can work less than the 40 hours you would at training schools and make more if you know how manage your time and resources. If you want to work on your Chinese you'll still have plenty of time for that as well.

I must admit though, 3200 for Beijing is LOW. I wouldn't seriously consider anything under 4500.