Have you had any experience of delivering a presentation at an interview? How do you prepare? How do you engage your audience? Presentations are a common part of the recruitment process for graduate, research, teaching, consulting and other professional roles across a range of sectors. Whether you have had a…>
Academic
My First Year Teaching in China
Foreign academics will face a series of challenges but also many opportunities in their first year teaching in China. In many disciplines, the appeal of hiring a foreign academic is that he/she can teach through the medium of English, and speak the language of the quality of a native speaker….>
Working in the Omani Higher Education System
From October 2012 for two years, I worked in a College of Applied Sciences (CAS) for the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE). It was my first academic post, post-PhD, outside of my home country. Entering in as an Asst. Prof. my responsibilities were to develop and teach a variety of…>
Dealing With Internet Censorship In China
The prospect of having to deal with internet censorship can be a daunting one when preparing to move to China. This is particularly true for academics…
4 Reasons Your CV Could Be Ignored
Are you fed up with receiving rejection letters in your pursuit to step up the ladder of your academic career? It can be tempting to give up, or even take a change of direction, if you feel like your applications aren’t getting you anywhere. Take a look at these four…>
Collaboration, Co-operation and Contribution
Collaboration, cooperation and contribution are the necessary ingredients for a recipe of enriched learning, knowledge consolidation, and active participation in further and higher education. I often reflect on the ever-changing world of learning. Our educational institutions have become somewhat vast yet empty; popular yet disfavoured; necessary yet peripheral. Too often,…>
Report-Writing: Some Questions And Answers
Is the report really necessary? Not always. Could the report be replaced by a long-ish but informal email, by a phone conversation followed by a summary email, or by a short oral presentation at a departmental meeting, recorded by ‘bullet points’ in the meeting minutes? You may not have the…>
Managing The Chinese Education System
In any education system, academics are answerable to the government. Audits, form-filling and declaring their research agendas form a routine part in the life of an academic who is required to complete these administrative tasks. It is true that China is no exception. Administrative tasks form a significant part of…>
What To Do When You Have Multiple Opportunities
When applying for jobs, you might find yourself in a situation where you have multiple opportunities offered to you at the same time. This might be viewed as a ‘good’ problem to have, but it does mean that you will have to make a potentially life-changing decision and that can…>
China Provides The Career Gateway To The World’s Academia
When I arrived in China to begin my academic career in 2010, I really didn’t know what to expect. As a historian I was aware that the nation had…