Pros
Colleagues and their cynical sense of humor in the face of adversity.
Cons
Students are admitted onto degree programs with an overall IELTS band of 5.0. Typically, they score higher in the speaking and listening sections, and lower in the reading and writing sections. In the latter two, scores are usually in the range 3.5 - 4.5. Think about this for a minute. Consider what a student reading and writing at this level can and cannot do. Imagine four or five sections of thirty unable to comprehend a middle school textbook. Imagine trying to read 120+ pieces of work at a time, written by students most of whom cannot even comprehend their own writing (plagiarised) or communicate basic meaning. Imagine the content of the writing, produced by students, many of whom have never read a book. Think about what teaching at this level involves. Think back to junior high, or even earlier. Imagine too the levels of motivation of students for whom the bar for university admission (and for that matter graduation) is so low. Consider large classes of students without a minimum threshold of content knowledge, study skills or linguistic ability to access what you can offer. This is not even grade school. You need strong classroom management skills to get by here. Is this really for you? Now, consider stakeholders and the University College management, who never set foot in classrooms or hold teaching qualifications. They want a research university to rank alongside the best in the world. How would this affect you, if you took up a position here, stuck in the middle between the reality of where the students are, and the delusions of your managers? How much research would you get done when your time is taken up managing such large, low-level classes, in addition to committee work, the implementation of iPad initiatives, trying to interpret unwritten syllabuses (drip fed to you week by week as they are conjured up), guessing what the assessments will be (because they haven't been written) etc etc? Imagine the plagiarism, perfectly rational behavior from the perspective of a student practically illiterate in his/her medium of study, faced with an unrealistic and inappropriate curriculum dictated by people who are not teachers. Then there is the admin work and the other trappings of rigor, such as performance evaluations, the results of which are often ignored. This is life for faculty in University College. There is no transparency. Your renewal or promotion is totally arbitrary, depending on who you know and who your friends are. Members of faculty are abandoned by an irresponsible management obsessed with status and hierarchy, and afraid and unwilling to dirty their hands with the reality of the teaching and learning environment. Nobody is happy. And if you dare make a suggestion or give feedback, no matter how tactfully you try, you are blacklisted. You are not here to apply the expertise you demonstrate on your resume. You are here to do what you are told, however objectionable, by people who are often appointed to their positions without qualifications in the field they oversee. The students can be helped, of course. But don't expect management to support you in this. It is too busy dictating to you according to its own priorities. I have never worked in a place that fails so utterly to meet the needs of its students. Please think very carefully before accepting a position here. Are things really that bad where you are that you feel the need to come here for this? Do not be fooled by the PR. Once you arrive, you will have accrued liabilities - car, furniture, down-payments on children's school places. You will not simply be able to turn around and leave when the terrible reality dawns on you. Most colleagues here feel disempowered, demoralised, disengaged and dejected. They want to go but cannot (yet), and envy those who can. I, for one, deeply regret my decision to come here.