My Wife Has Overseas Teaching Experience in Uni. How Can She Start Her Career in Australia

Lnavinjd on 01/11/2017 - 11:09

Hi All,

I hope you can show me some direction on how to proceed with my wife's situation.

Background:
My wife is a Permanent resident in Australia and not a citizen of Australia.
She has done her Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics and has done her Master of Technology in Embedded systems. She has no practical experience working on embedded systems. She only has overseas teaching experience in University for Master of Engineering students. She does not have a degree in teaching or education.
She is mother of 2 kids. She is planning to start working after 2 years.

Does she need to study any course to be eligible for teaching in universities? If so what it is, how much it will cost?

Since the teaching experience and environment in Australia is different, what do you recommend to get that?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Education & Work

Comments

  • dapt on 01/11/2017 - 11:17
    +13

    It's not looking good I'm afraid.

    Probably 95% of teaching in universities is done by those with a PhD (3+ years). Generally there are no formal teaching/education degree requirements. Those without a PhD who teach (esp. in engineering/science) have strong laboratory/practical experience.

    • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 12:38

      Thanks… It's definitely useful to know that phd is must in her situation.

  • InternetExplorer on 01/11/2017 - 11:46
    +5

    I can agree to the comment above. In my university, every lecturer who doesn't have a PhD have started their carrier by tutoring in the same university and then hand picked depending on their performance by the senior professors as lecturers. Even all tutors are high achieving HD students of same university.

    • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 12:40

      Thank you

  • Hazzard on 01/11/2017 - 11:47
    +3

    Agree with dapt. Infact, all my tutors at uni were existing PhD candidates in a similar field.

    To add onto that, a friend of mine completed his bachelors degree in engineering last year and started a PhD straight after. He is also tutoring 5hrs a week to support him financially during his PhD. He doesn't have any qualification in teaching.
    My thesis supervisor who was also a lecturer for two units got the lecturing position when he completed his PhD. He doesn't have any teaching qualification either.

    • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 13:00

      Thanks. Looks like phd is the answer.

  • lupiter on 01/11/2017 - 11:56
    +1

    These days you'll probably have to do a 1-year pass-or-fail teaching qualification in addition to the PhD, but many unis will let you do it while you're working your first year and will pay for it.

    The bigger problem is most Unis require lecturers to have a PhD. You could possibly get some casual work as a tutor or lab assistant, but those jobs will be given preferentially to PhD students at the institution (or even Masters or Honours students).

    • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 13:01

      Thanks. Makes sense as my wife did had any luck when she tried for tutor and lab assistant positions.

  • trinkasharma on 01/11/2017 - 11:57

    @navinjd,

    Are you and your wife Indian and have Indian qualifications? If you ask this Q in facebook Indian forums then you can get a better/faster answer.

  • websterp on 01/11/2017 - 12:39
    +1

    Perhaps apply to become a tutor (full time or part time) at a local university.
    That way your wife would at least have a starting point or would be able to make some connections in the academic circles which may or may not lead to getting a teaching position.

    • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 12:58

      Thanks. She already tried but no luck. As @lupiter mentioned it could be preferential to phd students.

  • Iangh on 01/11/2017 - 12:50
    +1

    PhD. Even if she doesn't get a scholarship there will be no fees as PR. Whilst doing PhD start sessional teaching, hope to get lecturer's job after graduation.

    • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 12:53

      Thanks. So she doesn't need citizenship to get fee help?

      • Hazzard on 01/11/2017 - 13:13
        +1

        No. PR holders are eligible for the government funded RTP scholarship. As far as I know, it doesn't have to paid back to the government either unlike HECS.

        • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 15:34

          Great. I didn't know about it. Thanks for sharing it.

        • Hazzard on 01/11/2017 - 15:59
          +2

          @navinjd: Not a problem. RTP also has a living allowance component however I am told competition for that is high and most PhD candidates only receive the tuition fee waiving portion. My uni ranked PhD candidates based on previous publications, level of degree, how the topic aligns with the university's goals etc and then makes the decision on whether the candidate receives the living allowance component.

          Best to look up potential supervisors based on what they specialise in and arrange a meeting with them. Most universities if not all have searchable online staff directories.

        • Iangh on 01/11/2017 - 17:28
          +2

          @Harshad:

          Just to add to this that scholarships are available from the Feds and the uni. A full scholarship is fees + around $25k for living (tax-free). If she doesn't get the scholarship she can start without one (zero fees for research students) and apply the following year. Trick is to find a supervisor that supports your application.

        • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 23:02

          @Harshad: Thanks again mate.

        • navinjd on 01/11/2017 - 23:03

          @Iangh: Thank you.

  • Bab on 02/11/2017 - 07:59

    Teaching in TAFE may be an option?

  • The tiger on 02/11/2017 - 09:02

    My friend , an Aussi PR, ( a Malaysian Chinese) who holds only Master Degree qualification, and aged around 60 , got a tutor job in a popular Uni. in Melbourne since some years ago . He had not previous teaching experience . I feel sure your wife would get one with her high standards of qualification. Be confident.

  • Ozpit on 02/11/2017 - 10:02

    As Bab said, has your wife considered teaching engineering/electrical/electronics at TAFE? You usually need a DipEd to teach at TAFE, but they will often pay for a DipEd crash course (super fast) during your first year of teaching, and they pay for it. Then if your wife is set on higher ed (Uni) teaching, she can study her PhD part time while teaching TAFE. Unfortunately, a part-time PhD will take quite a few years to complete, but there is no way around it.

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