Sias International University - Foreign Faculty

Foreign Faculty

As of 2012, there are 137 foreign faculty from four countries teaching at SIAS. The majority of the foreign faculty are U.S. citizens, although Canadians, Filipinos, Japanese, South African, Mexicans, Argentinians etc., have also been sparsely represented. Within this block of American teachers, the trend has been to recruit college graduates with connections to religious organizations on the west coast of the United States. Most foreign faculty are hired to teach English, although a significant amount of teachers aid Fort Hays professors in remotely teaching the American courses

Most of the foreign faculty at SIAS are temporary, as wages in Central China are a small fraction of their earning potential back home. Also, the school pays less per month than many universities around China do for foreign teachers.

Most foreign teachers at SIAS stay for two years, although some have stayed up to seven and some have left after four months. After their stint at SIAS, most foreign teachers return to their home countries, although some continued their expat life in China, pursuing academic or business careers in other cities or provinces.

As the expat community in Henan Province is an extremely small, but very visible, minority (about 1,000 out of 100 million), opportunities are afforded to foreign teachers outside of their regular duties. While their visas allow them only to work for SIAS, they attend government banquets, functions, or appear as guests on television shows. This is not particular to SIAS or Henan as international teachers throughout China are afforded these opportunities.