Good afternoon.
I’ve been doing some hard thinking about the future and wondered if I could get some insights here.
When I finished my MA about five years ago, colleagues and people I met at JALT events etc. would generally agree that an MA was enough to keep you in university employment as long as you keep up with publications and so on. However, also around this time I noticed that the number of people with PhDs seemed to be growing and would tell me that we would need it to future proof our positions.
I’ve got another year left on my current contract, so I’m getting ready to look for a job in the new year but I noticed a few things from checking in on JREC from time to time this year:
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– adverts now say ‘PhD preferred’ in most cases for a 5 year position and ‘MA required’ for part-time.
– generally many less jobs on the market than 5 years ago. The bigger universities seem to have switched many of their jobs to part time. I noticed at least three universities advertising 8 koma as part time work where this was a full time job in the past.
– one place I worked part time (years ago now) has done this with their mandatory courses, and that’s like 25 jobs gone from the full time market.
– when I’ve had a bit too much free time on my hands I’ve looked up on people I know on the circuit and a lot of them are on PhD programs.
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So basically what I’m wondering is are we looking at a situation, say in 5-10 years, where to get even a 5 year contract you will need a PhD. You will need a PhD plus a shit hot publication record/impact factor to get anywhere near tenure. And you’ll need an MA to get anywhere near working at a university that doesn’t bring in a dispatch agency to handle the bulk courses.
Is this perhaps too far-fetched? Or is it perhaps even underestimating how competitive it is getting out there?
Personally, I need to figure it out because there’s still a bit of time to plan an escape. But not much lol.
17 comments
When I was involved in hiring (10 years ago and earlier) our middle-level university had Ph.D. (and fluent spoken and written Japanese) as a requirement for any permanent position. An MA (and fluent spoken and written Japanese) with good publications sufficed for time-limited contract positions. Part-time positions could be filled by people with MAs, publications, and decent Japanese.
> I noticed at least three universities advertising 8 koma as part time work where this was a full time job in the past.
8 Koma over two semesters (i.e. 4 koma / semester or so?) sounds like what some good full time positions would expect. That said, part-timers are always expected to work more. It would generally take teaching 10 koma / semester + across multiple uni’s as an adjunct to make a livable(ish) wage.
I mean – think about it. In what world is somebody without a MA at minimum even allowed anywhere near a university classroom in a developed country? You used to be able to get away with it in Japan due to lack of educated high level English speakers (and you still can if you just work as a dispatch ALT at the university level, but that’s not really university level teaching), but now there are lots of educated English speakers in Japan. The number of jobs at universities that allow MAs is still pretty high for a developed country. So, yes, I expect the number of those jobs to decrease in favor of PhD graduates.
Requirements will vary depending on the rank of the university and its location. I’m at a smaller university not in Kanto or Kansai and it’s still possible to get a tenured position with a master’s, publications, relevant experience, and professional-level Japanese. That said, when positions come up, our job ads do say doctorate preferred. The university would prefer to hire someone who is going to progress through the ranks from assistant professor to full professor, and having the PhD/EdD is a major factor in promotion.
Not surprising. The MA was a stop gap just like having a bachelor was enough to get tenure a few decades ago.
Give it another 5 years, minimum requirements will be PhD + teaching licence + native Japanese and English
I know 5 peole with MAs who got tenure in the last few years at Japanese universities. These are at smaller Japanese unis, though. So it’s still possible. Higher ranking, larger unis will require PhDs, Japanese fluency, and a good publishing record. The ads say they prefer PhDs but sometimes you might get lucky at a uni in Tottori or Iwate, for example. These smaller unis also usually offer lower pay (¥4.5 to ¥5 million) and may have a larger workload. The adjunct phenomenon is, unfortunately, not unique to Japan. With a decreasing poplulation I fear that these types of positions will increase in the future.
If a PhD becomes the equivalent of an MA, what does that tell you about the usefulness of the PhD? If it’s just another piece of paper to get a job, it seems to go against the entire point, it seems to me. What has that research *genuinely* contributed to the field?
What do I know? Maybe we need some more classroom research insights where n=4 . . .
Get certified and work at an international school. Uni positions aren’t worth the hassle for their terrible contracts
>adverts now say ‘PhD preferred’
Of course a PhD is preferred. So what. Apply anyway.
I don’t think that the credential inflation is all that bad out here.
>generally many less jobs on the market than 5 years ago. The bigger universities seem to have switched many of their jobs to part time. I noticed at least three universities advertising 8 koma as part time work where this was a full time job in the past.
It’s all money. These universities are struggling lately with enrolment and profitability. It has less to do with the certs that people hold and more to do with the fact that a lot of these universities are barely scraping by.
>You will need a PhD plus a shit hot publication record/impact factor to get anywhere near tenure. And you’ll need an MA to get anywhere near working at a university that doesn’t bring in a dispatch agency to handle the bulk courses.
Is this not what is supposed to happen? Tenure is a big deal. There has been some credential inflation. For example, I’ve heard about guys way back getting assistant professor positions with a Bachelor’s, but other than that, tenured positions have almost always been a doctorate level + strong publication record thing and an MA is for getting your foot in the door. Maybe I don’t know enough about English teaching at university, though.
I’m gonna be honest though. In the STEM world, what you describe is positively enviable. I studied molecular biology at university and worked in that field for a few years. You are an absolutely nobody in that world if you do not have a doctorate. I read a LOT of scientific papers in fields such as biochemistry, genetics, pharmaceutics, and microbiology. I can tell you that the vast, vast majority of people are doctorate holders, even in papers in obscure journals. Rarely, I will see an author with an MS (fewer than 1 in 100). I almost NEVER see somebody with a BS (fewer than 1 in 1,000, I think). The salaries for post-doc researchers can be pretty shocking, too. If you want to teach in that world, you need a PhD and publications to get your foot in the door.
Dont forget to consider how top-heavy the university teaching industry is right now. Judging from JALT Fukuoka this weekend, there will still be plenty of opportunities in the future, because a large amount of these tenured positions will be opening up when the older guys retire over the next few years. From what I can gather Japanese ability is also a really important factor that is considered when universities make full-time hires, but i’m not sure what weight they put on that.
I doubt there will come a time when full-time university teachers (non-tenured) are required to have a PhD, as well as fluent Japanese ability, and X amount of academic publications. The salary just isn’t good enough. Who knows though ey. With the declining population, there could be a huge amount of consolidation within the industry.
I’ve worked at a community college for 15 years and the minimum requirement for part time was a master’s degree when I started.
Someone this weekend at JALT made a point. If you want tenure, your best bet is PhD, Publications, Japanese Proficiency.
Now the PhD isn’t always necessary with smaller schools, but you for sure want the later two.
I can’t speak for how public universities do their hiring, but I do have a decade of experience with private universities. I am currently tenured (with only a MA) and sit on hiring committees for my private university. I’ve seen people hired for tenure-track positions who have a MA and no publications and people with PhDs and lots of publications rejected. So I think I should add my opinion about what is important to securing a tenure gig.
If you want any job (tenure or not) network, network, network! Reach out to professors at universities you are thinking of applying to. Tell them you are interested and ask them about their program. We are human and like to talk and form relationships too! Maybe the person you reached out to will be one of the people on the hiring committee and maybe they will suggest bringing you in for an interview. Local JALT events, LinkedIn, Cold Call Emails, etc.
What if you got on a contract or tenure-track job, how do you secure tenure? I won’t say publications are not important. But what is most important is that the higher ups like you. I know people who were on 1 or 3 year contracts who got tenure cause the higher ups liked them! This does not mean your coworkers or your immediate boss, but does the president of the University, or the owner of the university, like you? Do they even know who you are? Is their image of you good or negative? This is super important and often overlooked or seen as “not part of my job” by lots of teachers.
Do you dress well? Can you communicate well in Japanese? Do you care about students outside of class (school events, sports games, etc.)? Think about ways to get your university positive press! In this age of lowering student numbers, universities want good press. Make yourself hard to replace. This is more important than the number of publications you have or whether you have a PhD or MA.
Having a Nobel Prize is the new doctoral degree.
All this is irrelevant. Native English speaker White females under 40 with an MA and N1 Japanese who are not overweight are total unicorns here and can probably get tenure anywhere