{"id":3772,"date":"2021-11-30T01:50:21","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T17:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/Teaching-at-a-Chinese-university-vs-a-Chinese-college"},"modified":"2024-08-11T15:22:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-11T07:22:41","slug":"chinese-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/chinese-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching at a Chinese university vs a Chinese college"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teaching in a Chinese university or college is a common option for people who want to teach English in China. This article will look at some of the key distinctions between teaching<\/a> at a Chinese university<\/a> and a Chinese college.<\/p>\n

\"Teaching<\/p>\n

By the conclusion, you should have a good idea of what to anticipate at both types of institutions.<\/p>\n

(If you’re still thinking about teaching in China<\/a>, start here, or here if you have more time.)<\/p>\n

The name difference Higher education in China is a bit different.<\/p>\n

Some institutions have the term “university” in their name yet are not universities.<\/p>\n

Sichuan University of Arts and Science, for example, is not a university.<\/p>\n

So, how can you know whether a place is a university or not? The solution may be found by looking at its Chinese name.<\/p>\n

Universities are just those with the term “d\u00e0xu\u00e9” () in their names.<\/p>\n

A school with the characters “zhy\u00e8 jsh\u00f9 xu\u00e9yu\u00e0n” () in its name is a technical college, but a school with the characters “w\u00e9nl xu\u00e9yu\u00e0n” () in its name is an institution.<\/p>\n

This is noteworthy since there are substantial disparities between Chinese universities and colleges.<\/p>\n

It’s particularly significant since in the West, the terms ‘university’ and ‘college’ are often used interchangeably.<\/p>\n

Academic liberty<\/p>\n

In China, I taught at three colleges and one university. (You can read my piece on what it’s like to teach in China here.)<\/p>\n

The first difference I’ve seen is that academic freedom is far greater at Chinese colleges than in Chinese universities.<\/p>\n

A instructor at a Chinese college is generally only handed a schedule and a textbook (if one is available for the subject) and told to get on with it.<\/p>\n

You are free to teach in whatever manner you see fit.<\/p>\n

A Chinese university, on the other hand, may be quite bureaucratic.<\/h2>\n

They will often instruct you what to teach, how tests should be administered<\/a>, and even what grades you should award.<\/p>\n

They could even have you write test reports or record oral examinations on an audio device.<\/p>\n

As a result, an unskilled teacher may be more suited to teaching at a university.<\/p>\n

But, if you’re a seasoned instructor like myself, being told what to do might be aggravating!<\/p>\n

Class sizes at a college are often less than those at a university.<\/p>\n

The smallest class I’ve taught at a college had just four pupils, but a class at a university may have up to 60 students.<\/p>\n

Although you may teach a big class as easily as a small one, keep in mind that if you’re teaching spoken English, you’ll only have two periods to administer tests.<\/p>\n

Trying to conduct oral examinations at a university might be a nightmare!<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at what it’s like to teach spoken English in a Chinese university.<\/p>\n

Job fulfillment<\/p>\n

Regular classes with students you see every week are more probable at a college.<\/p>\n

This is really important to me since it allows you to get to know your kids.<\/p>\n

At a university, the goal may simply be to “process” as many students as possible as soon as feasible. You could be subjected to an arrangement in which you teach a class once, then assess the pupils the next week before moving on to a new set of students.<\/p>\n

In comparison to a college, a Chinese university may be defined as a degree factory.<\/p>\n

As a result, if you’re a professional teacher, you’ll be happier in a college than at a university.<\/p>\n

That has been my experience, at least.<\/p>\n

\"Teaching<\/p>\n

Job stability and security<\/p>\n

A position at a college may be less secure than one at a university due to the smaller class numbers.<\/p>\n

My contract was not renewed at any of the institutions where I taught, but it was renewed four times at my current university.<\/p>\n

Evening and weekend sessions are available.<\/p>\n

In China, a public university is a massive institution.<\/p>\n

It may have both international students<\/a> and part-time students who come to class on weekends because they work during the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teaching in a Chinese university or college is a common option for people who want to teach English in China. This article will look at some of the key distinctions …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,21,33],"tags":[60,353,306,218,29,34,701,1593,396],"class_list":["post-3772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china-jobs","category-hot-jobs","category-part-time-job","tag-china","tag-e-china-cities","tag-hiredchina","tag-international-students","tag-jobs","tag-jobs-in-china","tag-teaching","tag-teaching-at-a-chinese-university-vs-a-chinese-college","tag-teaching-in-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14773,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions\/14773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}