15% pay cut from private sector to teach in Polytechnic

[loire]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What job did they offer you? I know in RP even Senior Academic Officer (not lecturer) already ~$7k, so I'm surprise they offer only $5.7k for your academic & career credential.

I am from RP, and i can tell you that RP don't have lecturer... Due to the PBL teaching approach in RP, their lecturer are not called lecturer but named as facilitator. the job title in our LOA will be academic staff/senior academic staff which is equivalent to lecturer/senior lecturer in other polytechnic.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Friend, lecturers aren't professors. They don't make a lot of money. 8k is excessive for a lecturer in a non-managerial position.

If you are good, stay in your professional career. Those who are good, do; those who aren't, teach.

that is an insult to all the teachers or anybody who is pursuing academic career.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

that is an insult to all the teachers or anybody who is pursuing academic career.

I speak for those with a real passion for their field. Let's imagine that I enjoy engineering. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I will:

1. Read journals just for the fun of it. I even write some myself and try to get published.
2. Run pet projects on my own.
3. Blog about it, write about it, reply to forum posts of people asking about it.
4. Teach as many people who wishes to learn about it. Infect people. Spread the gospel.
5. Improve myself by studying everything available about it.

If I found a job in engineering, what might happen is that I will:

1. Do the same set of engineering work repeatedly.
2. Get promoted to project manager and watch people do it repeatedly.
3. Lost the chance to work on it hands-on because I am now managing.
4. Bash through tons of bureaucracy because I wish to suggest that it be done differently.
5. Lose interest at it, because its the same old things.
6. Only have time to do point 1 to 5 in the other list above only during free-time.

This is one reason why professors and academics exist. This group of people love what they do so much that doing it for money kills the interest.

The downside is that this group of people don't make a lot of money and are constantly slammed by the industry folks to be the groups who can't do, and are thus teaching those stuff. It hurts real bad.

This seems to defy the law that says that when one has the passion and does what he loves, the money comes automatically. It doesn't in this case.

[undiscern]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I speak for those with a real passion for their field. Let's imagine that I enjoy engineering. In fact, I enjoy it so much that I will:

1. Read journals just for the fun of it. I even write some myself and try to get published.
2. Run pet projects on my own.
3. Blog about it, write about it, reply to forum posts of people asking about it.
4. Teach as many people who wishes to learn about it. Infect people. Spread the gospel.
5. Improve myself by studying everything available about it.

If I found a job in engineering, what might happen is that I will:

1. Do the same set of engineering work repeatedly.
2. Get promoted to project manager and watch people do it repeatedly.
3. Lost the chance to work on it hands-on because I am now managing.
4. Bash through tons of bureaucracy because I wish to suggest that it be done differently.
5. Lose interest at it, because its the same old things.
6. Only have time to do point 1 to 5 in the other list above only during free-time.

This is one reason why professors and academics exist. This group of people love what they do so much that doing it for money kills the interest.

The downside is that this group of people don't make a lot of money and are constantly slammed by the industry folks to be the groups who can't do, and are thus teaching those stuff. It hurts real bad.

This seems to defy the law that says that when one has the passion and does what he loves, the money comes automatically. It doesn't in this case.

I think you might be mistaken. Faculty members in Singapore universities are drawing the same rate as American Ivy League universities but with less tax and lower cost of living.

Sad to say, MOST local academics work for the money and there is some truth in the saying of they can only teach and cant do. To make thing worst, many of us also notice that quite a number of them CANT teach at all.

Not expert on poly lecturer pay, but compared to Uni lecturer 4-5k does sound ridiculously low...

I would expect poly lecturer to be lower pay, but seeing that so many lecturers in our 3 local unis get >10k, I quite surprised to hear that poly cannot even meet half of their uni counterparts.

So let me understand a bit more from ppl who are familiar, like in RP those senior academic staff do they need to have a Master in whatever subject they are teaching before they can conduct lessons?

Do they actually conduct lectures or only help out in some professor to do class work and tutorials?

Junior assistant profs get only 10k. Moreover, it's hard to get a PhD, especially from a reputable university overseas. These academics are unlikely to ever work in the private sector, and yet they have to face things like "publish or perish", or if they can't teach well, they will get lots of complaints and ultimately the sack.

Other the other hand, some poly lecturers only have Bachelor degrees, and they still get to jump in and out of the private sector.

I think the remuneration for both is fair.

I think university faculty earn much more than poly lecturers, and rightly so, because the bar for entry is much higher. For one, you would need to have a PhD to be placed on the professorial track. This is after slogging for a few years on a stipend while your peers are getting increments and bonuses. And getting hired does not guarantee stability. Academia is very competitive now. As an assistant professor, you are on contract, and if you do not perform within a certain time frame, you have to leave.

Assoc Professors gets 10k, but gets paid 9 months out of a year. Contract is fixed, no bonus... at least that's what I heard.

If this is true, $90k per annum isn't exactly fantastic.

Lecturers in the Poly gets paid on all 12 months, enjoy AWS and performance bonus.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Assoc Professors gets 10k, but gets paid 9 months out of a year. Contract is fixed, no bonus... at least that's what I heard.

If this is true, $90k per annum isn't exactly fantastic.

Lecturers in the Poly gets paid on all 12 months, enjoy AWS and performance bonus.

I am from RP, have a masters and an academic staff (not Senior) and i make 7k a month
this is 1/2 of what a Uni lecturer makes but I do not have a PhD so i cannot complain.

what i am unhappy about is the PhD academic staff who do the same work as me, but draw higher salary by virtue of having a PhD.

so if there is any advice i can give, get a PhD before joining a polytechnic.
everyone has a PhD now.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am from RP, have a masters and an academic staff (not Senior) and i make 7k a month
this is 1/2 of what a Uni lecturer makes but I do not have a PhD so i cannot complain.

what i am unhappy about is the PhD academic staff who do the same work as me, but draw higher salary by virtue of having a PhD.

so if there is any advice i can give, get a PhD before joining a polytechnic.
everyone has a PhD now.

7K per month is monthly exclude AWS/Bouns or total annual / 12? If it is monthly, don't RP follow the PAX scheme just like the rest of the poly? you will need to be a PAX 4 to get more than 6.2K per month and PAX 4 is a senior right? PAX5 and below are non senior and get max of 6.2K per month. Do you continue to get increment after you hit your salary ceiling?