University hours

8 comments

1. In my experience, the average is around 8-12 koma (90 minute classes) per week for both semesters (15 weeks). If you get fewer than 8 koma for non-TT, consider yourself lucky. If you have more than 12 koma, you won’t likely be able to do any research. Non-TT jobs genrally require some publications, but not in Q1 journals.

2. I can only speak for my experience, so here it goes:

   1) I started with 8 koma (one koma being 90 minutes) a week in my first semester, and the koma count went up an down for a few years. Before tenure it topped at 10, after tenure it has been as low as 7 and as high as 14. Colleagues in areas other than foreign language teaching, or who refuse to teach in English, usually have classes for 3 to 4 koma a week.

   2) Research: yes, and we are also required to apply for public funding. This applies to both tenured and non-tenured faculty.

   3) I appreciate being able to adjust my weekly schedule – except for classes – to better support my family. I could do without the thousand committees and their respective meetings and the monthly faculty meetings and the random meetings to prepare for meetings.

   4) I worked at one university in Italy and one in the UK. Nothing compares. Class sizes, student motivation, engagement, language proficiency are worlds apart and take adjustment. On the administrative side, I did roughly twice as much work in Japan than I did in Italy (the experience in the UK is too short to compare) before tenure. After… I don’t want to talk about it, lol. Research practices are much more serious in the UK compared to Japan and Italy. The pay is much higher in Japan. One thing that all three universities have in common are the political and power games, I reckon.

   TL;DR Expect to work longer hours in Japan, as teaching hours, administrative work, paperwork, and pointless meetings pile up. Engaging in research that can win funds is expected (=compulsory unless you have a very, very sound reason not to). Pros: flex-time and salary. Cons: did I mention meetings?

3. >What is a common number of teaching hours at universities for non-tenured instructors?

   8-12, but sometimes there is required hours. 9-6 for example if it’s a bad job.

   > Are you required to do research?

   To get the job, you need publications. Most contract jobs don’t require research, though you’d want to do some to build your CV.

   > If you teach at university, what are the conditions you like and what are conditions that suck?

   Conditions are long vacations paid. Depending on the university, the students can be quite good. Sucks? Sometimes you can’t set a syllabus. And sometimes you are asked to set all the syllabi for different courses. Best to have a nice middle ground IMO.

4. It also depends on what field.

   Based on the other responses, I’m guessing they all teach foreign language or humanities.

   It’s so much different for hard sciences.

   As a computer science professor at my university:

   A tenure track gets 1 class per year (not semester like koma). A tenured professor has 1-3 classes per year. No professor in the whole department has more than 3 and we don’t use lecturers or hijoukin.

   On the flip side, nearly all your time is for research or guiding students in their research (or writing grants or admin duties). An associate professor usually has 2 Bachelor 4th year students and 2-6 Master students. A full professor has 3 B4 students, 6-20 Master students, and some PhD or research students. Every student has their own research topic that you are in charge of.

5. Thanks!

6. I’ve worked at a few different universities on full time, non-tenured contacts (i.e. 5-year limit).

   In my experience, I’ve taught 7-10 90-minute classes a week. Non-teaching hours I was able to stay on campus or leave. The semesters have ranged from 13-15 weeks, with the holidays being paid vacation.

   During term time I’ve had a few extra responsibilities- like office hours, or weekly/monthly meetings, or committee responsibilities.

   Sometimes I’ve had to come in maybe once a semester to help with an open-campus, or exam invigilation.

   I’ve never been required to do research, but everyone knows that if you don’t keep up with publishing research, it’ll get more difficult to find your next job.

   Good conditions-

   – Low working hours
   – comfortable salary
   – Long holidays
   – research funds

   Bad conditions-

   – Sometimes teaching classes with set textbooks/syllabuses
   – sometimes teaching unmotivated students
   – sometimes meetings are tedious

7. >What is a common number of teaching hours at universities for non-tenured instructors?

   In my experience – 10 koma. I’ve said that before on here and gotten pushback to the effect that 8 koma is more common. I’d say to hope for 8 but expect 10.

   >Are you required to do research?

   I think this depends on the university but, generally, no. Required? No.

   >If you teach at university, what are the conditions you like and what are conditions that suck?

   I’ve got some freedom in what and how I teach. I get a decent research budget. Long vacations. Very few meetings to attend.

8. So the hours seem to be pretty standard across the board here but 8-10 koma is way above anything I’ve experienced over my many years of uni teaching. For the money it’s quite unreasonable if I’m comparing.

   Thanks to everyone who responded.