working at university?

[flynnn]

Hello,

I've recently become interested in moving to nz after finishing graduate school, after which I will (hopefully) be qualified to teach history at the collegiate level.
I have a lot of questions about nz schools, and haven't been able to find too much online, and none of my professors know about them either.
Any information about nz colleges would be much appreciated.
I mean a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Thank you.

[MotherBear]

Hi Flynnn and welcome.

Here's a site about teaching in NZ. I haven't been through it so don't know whether it's any good or not. May not apply to colleges and universities. We did have some teachers on the forum, but they seem to have evaporated into thin air since they've been in NZ, unfortunately.

If you haven't had any previous teaching experience, I believe you may need to gain 2 years' experience in teaching in your own country before you can teach in NZ. Also your teaching diploma would have to be assessed by the NZQA ( www.nzqa.govt.nz ). You may need to be registered with the NZ Teaching Council ( www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz ), which could prove difficult until you've got your 2 years experience. Once you are registered you can apply for jobs advertised in the NZ Education Gazette where all vacancies are advertised. Again, I'm not sure whether all this applies to those wishing to teach in colleges and unis as opposed to primary and secondary teachers.

[jadet]

Hi Flynnn,

My husband is also "finishing up" graduate school (ie, will graduate this december) and is also interested in teaching at a uni. The major problem is how few schools there are in NZ. Only 8 large institutions, and then smaller polytechnics. So there are fewer jobs in all of NZ than there would be in some larger states in the US. I would highly reccomend that you NOT apply for PR before getting a job offer- it costs a lot of money to go through the process and I think in the case of university teaching it makes zero difference in your chances of getting a job. I've heard from people who have been flown over if they are a finalist for a position. Then if you do get a job offer, you will be rushed through the PR process (I've even seen universities that say they reimburse costs of moving/immigration fees).

If you really really want to do this, consider going over and teaching as an ajunct if you can, perferably on South Island, since the cost of living is less, so that means University of Otago or Lincoln in Christchurch or U of Canterbury.

In our case, we did apply for PR and are going through the process now, but it was only because consulting is another area that my husband is interested in working in, and for that we do need to have PR to be taken seriously for a job.

I always check the university webpages themselves, but
http://www.seek.co.nz/Education/index.ascx
has good ones as well.
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/
is a site in the UK, but it lists plenty of NZ jobs too.

Best of luck to you.