<p>I am currently a PhD student in the medical sciences area at a well recognized American institution. I’m interested in performing research and teaching courses in English at major Chinese institutions (e.g. Peking University, Tsinghua University) part-time (preferrably in the summer session) while holding an academic appointment in the USA. Is anyone familiar with this process or could point me to some web resources? Any ideas?</p>
<p>The following position is interesting, but seems like something that is very difficult to achieve within 10 years:</p>
<p>“Qualifications for Nomination and Employment: The Chair Professorships are open to internationally renowned professors and scholars enjoying international fame in their respective fields of study.”</p>
<p>interesting goal… what makes you wanna spend your summer times in China? (just curious)</p>
<p>and btw… even thou PKU and THU do not rank well internationally, but they are undoubtedly #1 and #2 schools in China. That being said, there are tons of people want to get in there, and nowadays China is not short of incoming workforce at all levels.</p>
<p>the few other top tier schools should just be as hard, such as SJTU, USTC, Zhejiang U…</p>
<p>Hi Mr.Zoo. I have close relatives in Beijing and am a bit homesick. :)</p>
<p>It’s getting tougher for me to take extended vacations to visit my relatives (had a 3 week vacation this summer-first time since I graduated high school that I took so much time off). I am still unfamiliar with how tenure-track professorship positions work in terms of flexibility for exchange (i.e. teaching/working at other institutions), but I would love to teach/research during summers as an assistant professor and beyond at a Chinese institution (preferably in Beijing). This would allow me to still work while I “vacation”.</p>
<p>I’m just daydreaming at this point and I need to do more research on this.</p>
<p>I see, well Beijing is the capital and has many high level institutions, I’m sure you will be able to find one</p>
<p>—speaking of this, I recall I’ve talked to one of my drivers while I was in China. He said he has a customer, comes back to China every summer to teach at some university in ZhuHai area (so it’s not a top tier school), the school invited him and have bought him a house there, pretty good deal imo. He is native chinese too and is currently professor in the US. Sounds like it’s something you are looking for.</p>
<p>Randomname, most likely you would not be able to take a visiting professor position while you are on the tenure track at a US university. Once you have tenure, you can take a sabbatical, usually once every six or seven years, and during that time, work at another university, either in the US or abroad. </p>
<p>Despite common perception, professors do not really have summers off. They are expected to continue their research, write papers, mentor grad students, etc. during that time. Of course they can take a vacation and have irregular hours. But usually they are on campus at least part-time.</p>
<p>i disagree with mom on the “professors do not have summers off”</p>
<p>if you have tenure in hand, you can indeed take every summer off while department doesnt make you to teach—you can do that be fulfilling your teaching obligations in other terms</p>
<p>of course if you take every summer off there is big trade off, but you still could do it</p>
<p>Professors do go elsewhere to advance their research in their field, but they don’t take the summer off. If teaching English at a Chinese university is part of that, then it won’t be looked down upon. However, if you’re a professor of engineering, and you disappear each summer to teach English, then that probably won’t be looked upon very highly.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that professors do not only teach. Scholarship/research is a significant portion of their work, as is committee work. If you don’t have a significant body of both, then you don’t get tenure. And once you get tenure, you shouldn’t slack off. In fact, you should have reached a point in your career where your connections and your scholarship/research has taken off. Besides, once you get tenure, you still are only an associate professor. You still have yet to be promoted to full professor.</p>
<p>If you teach at a liberal arts college, without graduate students, it’s easier to disappear for the summer than if you have graduate students who work year-round. And if you’re in the humanities with research that can be done elsewhere, that’s different from being a scientist with grants.</p>