Har nor, NTU very good at this also.
Cut cost by 50%, same productivity output = more efficient
professors
School fee increase some more.
Soon to be world-class uni liao!
Of course, professor can also become cleaner lah!
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Ageing NTU professor gets full-time lesson in 'half-pay'
Friday May 19, 2006
Tor Ching Li
[email protected]
IT'S not just the old and unskilled workers who are having
difficulty finding or keeping their jobs at a reasonable pay. Even
some university professors are now finding their value slashed by
half once they hit the age of 55.
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) associate professor Dr Tham
(not his real name), who turns 55 next month, told Today that he
has been offered a two-year, "half-time, half-pay" scheme also
called the Associate Professorial Fellowship by NTU.
Said Dr Tham: "It was a shock to be offered such terms after
working for the organisation for over 25 years. But either I
accepted the terms or I had to leave."
Technically, the package cuts his workload, along with his pay, by
half. In addition, he was also told to move from an office of his
own to share one with another older academic staff on the scheme
or a "half-office", as Dr Tham calls it. But the real rude shock
for Dr Tham, who has a PhD from Britain, came when he later checked
his teaching roster for next month under the scheme: It was exactly
the same as his current workload.
"I thought I will be given a lighter teaching workload, but I will
be working as much as I am now, which is not the 'half-time'
commitment that the contract stated," said Dr Tham.
Asked about this, NTU's human resources vice-president, Mrs Angela
Lim, said: "The focus for the half-time scheme is to carry out
teaching duties. This is different from full-time faculty whose
workload is to be apportioned in the areas of teaching, research
and service. As such, the workload of faculty on the half-time
scheme is generally halved, even with a full-teaching
roster."
Saying that the scheme has been in place since the 1990s, Mrs Lim
added: "There is sufficient time to prepare lessons, mark
assignments and attend to examination matters with the working load
halved."
Disagreeing with this assessment, the professor said that he now
works five days a week, from 8.30am to 5.45pm, and can't see how
his workload has been halved. "The fact is I have been allocated
the same number of teaching hours. Do they think that, after 55, it
will take me half the time to prepare classes, set assessments and
mark examinations?"
While the National Wages Council has been encouraging employers to
retain workers beyond the age of 62, some older NTU teaching staff
are upset that their retirement age is just 55.
The other local universities the National University of Singapore
and the Singapore Management University both offer tenures till
the age of 65.
NTU's stand is that it engages its retired staff on a part-time
basis where there is a need and that its regular faculty members
are expected to meet performance standards in the areas of
teaching, research and service an internationally-accepted
practice.
But one NTU academic countered: "I suppose the university thinks
that younger minds are better suited for research, but that does
not mean they are better teachers. You can't replace 20-odd years
of experience with textbook knowledge."
Offered such "half-time" terms, some professors have left NTU to
join other universities, locally or overseas, who accept staff
beyond 55 years old on a full-time tenure. Universities in
Australia offer tenures for life, till the professor decides to
retire. SMU says it offers faculty above 65 employment on a
contract basis with no great reduction in pay.
However, the problem for most academic staff nearing NTU's
retirement age is the lack of choice. Said a mechanical engineering
professor, who will turn 55 next year: "After spending most of our
time in academia, it is not so easy to find work in the industry
unless you have been constantly engaging in consultation work. So,
most of us have no choice but to accept whatever terms are given
and stay on."
Nevertheless, there is one new innovation that Dr Tham may well
exploit an online resignation Web portal. He said: "Nowhere else
can you resign with one click. I may be using it soon."
