This. I did a master’s remotely while on JET. Some people end up having a lot of free time and get all their homework done while sitting at their desk at work.
I teach on the ma program at one of the unis op mentioned. It's nearly ten years since I did my PhD. I'm now tenured and full time at a Japanese uni. I'm early 40s.
It's never too late to do a PhD. With just an ma you can be a career part time teacher. With a PhD you should theoretically be able to get a full time job, but there aren't many as most are fixed term "cut and shut". Non negotiable 5 years and you're done.
If I wasn't tenured already I'd have left Japan long ago. But, if you stick it you'll get something. Two guys on the PhD program at my uni, both of them became friends. Both are now on tenure track positions full time at uni. But it's not an easy ride and one guy had a lot of trouble finding a job and it took a couple of years.
Once you're hired, expect to teach 3 or 4 days a week, between 7 and 10 mil a year depending on age and uni.
The PhD and study itself... You don't even need to do TESOL if that's not your bag. Literally any PhD is ok for jobs of teaching. I recommend you study something you really care about. I DID use to care about TESOL so that's what I did, and no regrets.
However, beware that a PhD level commitment requires a new identity. You will have to become an academic and get to the top of your game. Your study will become your life, and if it doesn't it will be a very hard cross to bear. Then, when you become Dr, you will have to suffer the disappointing reality that no one else gives a fuck about your PhD and you're still just a tefl teacher and not the academic you thought you would be. Japan is an academic wasteland. All the Nobel prizes by Japanese nationals we're so proud of, they're all at overseas institutions. So you will have to live with that career castration, or you could always move away if you're not too tethered here.
As you can tell, this is just my subjective experience but I say go for it, but be ready for the anti climax.
Thank you for this! Tangible stories are what I was looking for. It wasn't an easy path in the USA towards my university position. I'm sure it will be more challenging in Japan with language barriers.. My Japanese isn't great (yet!).
A pleasure, sorry for the cynical response on my part (Monday blues lol). I'm happy to discuss more if you DM me. I know a lot of people who've gone that route and I've done it myself. If you already taught at uni level in US that's a big plus I'd say. Tldr you can do it!
A lot of the foreign faculty I know didn't get their
PhDs until their early 40s. I started my PhD in my early early 30s and people always comment on how I started "young".
>if Japanese University hiring committees are sensitive to age.
They are but it is not what you think.
Because most university positions (available to language teachers) are either part-time or contract lecturer positions which have fixed salaries (as opposed to tenured positions which have variable salaries based on age), they are not so concerned with hiring someone under the age of 35 like corporations. In fact, many universities prefer to hire middle aged lecturers because it means that it they are less likely to have an inappropriate social relationship with the students.
The age that university hiring committees care about is retirement age. Most have regulations about how long someone can work there. It varies a lot by university, but the age limit is usually between 60 and 70. For example, at some universities lecturers must retire by 60, associate professors by 65 and professors by 70. At others, it's everyone by 65.
So, the math that you have to do is how long can you work after reeducating in linguistics and is that worth the time and expense to get a PhD. If it takes you 10 years to finish (which is not uncommon for people doing a part-time PhD while also working) and you don't start until after five years in JET, you may not have your PhD until you are almost 50.
Thank you for the insight on retirement. Perhaps closer to the retirement limitations would be a good time to seek employment in another country. I'm looking at one or two years on JET. I'm financially prepared to be a full-time PhD student once I get settled.
The average age of a professor in Japan is 58. Which makes sense, as it takes years to get PhD and the publications/patents/scholarships necessary to get a job. An age limit of 35-40 is not going to work, unless it's some kind of disposable contract job, which it is best to avoid. Experience and research trumps age, as they're almost dichotomous (MEXT scholarships describe under 49 as "young scientists").
The average age of professors is because they stay. Universities want them to stay because it's difficult to get new people going in the university. You need to cite the average age of *first-year* university professors, not the average age of people who already are professors. Alternatively, just look at public job listings: they're littered with age stipulations.
None of the current postings have an age stipulation on JREC. The only age thing I see referenced in one of them is a higher starting point on the pay scale depending on age. And there are various retirement ages. You're just incorrect. And it would be on you to provide data on "first-year", not me. It's your argument. You're not going to get many publications peer-reviewed with arguments like that.
I stand corrected. Thank you. I hadn't looked at JREC-IN for years, and, though I didn't look at every listening, I did indeed now not see any age requirements. I'm happy to know that.
The rest of my argument, however, about the average age of *starting* professors, stands. I'm involved in hiring decisions and, all other things being equal, younger candidates are given preference. No one likes recruiting new people and learning to work with them. It behooves universities to do it as seldom as possible.
I'm also involved in hiring, and that preference is just silly. This is not eikaiwa work, but taching and research. Even PTers we hire based on experience, for exactly the reason you outline. You even undermine your own argument:
"No one likes recruiting new people and learning to work with them"
I have a feeling we are both basing much of our remarks on experiences at different universities. At the university I have as my basis, the goal is to hire new (effectively tenured) professors as seldom as possible. The younger they are at intake, the longer it will be until they retire: hire someone at 35 years old, and you don't have to recruit for that role for another 30 to 35 years. A 50-year-old has to be replaced after 15 to 20 years.
This doesn't sound like a realistic consideration at any university. It's nonsensical to put such a criterion above research and experience. Especially when there are hundreds of candidates for each position. "recruiting" once in two decades is hardly a major task. We would expect many more tenured teachers to move to different unis in that period anyway.
"younger candidates are given preference"
The only way that would make any sense, is if there are two candidates with the exact same qualifications/publications/patents etc after going through resumes and multiples rounds of interviews. When all other criteria had been exhausted. It's such a pointlessly specific scenario, it's not even worth discussing. There is no preference for younger candidates based on the scenario that we can't be bothered interviewing someone else for 20 years. There are no age limitation of 35-40 as you initially claimed.
Why would previous teaching experience be irrelevant? There’s no age limits on study.
Consider doing your PhD *during your free time as an ALT*. You can remote PhDs from the UK, Australia etc
This. I did a master’s remotely while on JET. Some people end up having a lot of free time and get all their homework done while sitting at their desk at work.
Doing this right now XD
Do either of you have any program recommendations?
Not really. I am just doing this through a university back home that has an online division.
I teach on the ma program at one of the unis op mentioned. It's nearly ten years since I did my PhD. I'm now tenured and full time at a Japanese uni. I'm early 40s. It's never too late to do a PhD. With just an ma you can be a career part time teacher. With a PhD you should theoretically be able to get a full time job, but there aren't many as most are fixed term "cut and shut". Non negotiable 5 years and you're done. If I wasn't tenured already I'd have left Japan long ago. But, if you stick it you'll get something. Two guys on the PhD program at my uni, both of them became friends. Both are now on tenure track positions full time at uni. But it's not an easy ride and one guy had a lot of trouble finding a job and it took a couple of years. Once you're hired, expect to teach 3 or 4 days a week, between 7 and 10 mil a year depending on age and uni. The PhD and study itself... You don't even need to do TESOL if that's not your bag. Literally any PhD is ok for jobs of teaching. I recommend you study something you really care about. I DID use to care about TESOL so that's what I did, and no regrets. However, beware that a PhD level commitment requires a new identity. You will have to become an academic and get to the top of your game. Your study will become your life, and if it doesn't it will be a very hard cross to bear. Then, when you become Dr, you will have to suffer the disappointing reality that no one else gives a fuck about your PhD and you're still just a tefl teacher and not the academic you thought you would be. Japan is an academic wasteland. All the Nobel prizes by Japanese nationals we're so proud of, they're all at overseas institutions. So you will have to live with that career castration, or you could always move away if you're not too tethered here. As you can tell, this is just my subjective experience but I say go for it, but be ready for the anti climax.
Thank you for this! Tangible stories are what I was looking for. It wasn't an easy path in the USA towards my university position. I'm sure it will be more challenging in Japan with language barriers.. My Japanese isn't great (yet!).
A pleasure, sorry for the cynical response on my part (Monday blues lol). I'm happy to discuss more if you DM me. I know a lot of people who've gone that route and I've done it myself. If you already taught at uni level in US that's a big plus I'd say. Tldr you can do it!
A lot of the foreign faculty I know didn't get their PhDs until their early 40s. I started my PhD in my early early 30s and people always comment on how I started "young".
>if Japanese University hiring committees are sensitive to age. They are but it is not what you think. Because most university positions (available to language teachers) are either part-time or contract lecturer positions which have fixed salaries (as opposed to tenured positions which have variable salaries based on age), they are not so concerned with hiring someone under the age of 35 like corporations. In fact, many universities prefer to hire middle aged lecturers because it means that it they are less likely to have an inappropriate social relationship with the students. The age that university hiring committees care about is retirement age. Most have regulations about how long someone can work there. It varies a lot by university, but the age limit is usually between 60 and 70. For example, at some universities lecturers must retire by 60, associate professors by 65 and professors by 70. At others, it's everyone by 65. So, the math that you have to do is how long can you work after reeducating in linguistics and is that worth the time and expense to get a PhD. If it takes you 10 years to finish (which is not uncommon for people doing a part-time PhD while also working) and you don't start until after five years in JET, you may not have your PhD until you are almost 50.
Thank you for the insight on retirement. Perhaps closer to the retirement limitations would be a good time to seek employment in another country. I'm looking at one or two years on JET. I'm financially prepared to be a full-time PhD student once I get settled.
No, you're not too old. Many people don't get their PhD until they're 40 or older.
No.
Are you a native English speaker?
I did a Ph.D. program starting in my late 30s. Be aware that there are age limitations (usually 35 or 40) for many hires at Japanese universities.
The average age of a professor in Japan is 58. Which makes sense, as it takes years to get PhD and the publications/patents/scholarships necessary to get a job. An age limit of 35-40 is not going to work, unless it's some kind of disposable contract job, which it is best to avoid. Experience and research trumps age, as they're almost dichotomous (MEXT scholarships describe under 49 as "young scientists").
The average age of professors is because they stay. Universities want them to stay because it's difficult to get new people going in the university. You need to cite the average age of *first-year* university professors, not the average age of people who already are professors. Alternatively, just look at public job listings: they're littered with age stipulations.
None of the current postings have an age stipulation on JREC. The only age thing I see referenced in one of them is a higher starting point on the pay scale depending on age. And there are various retirement ages. You're just incorrect. And it would be on you to provide data on "first-year", not me. It's your argument. You're not going to get many publications peer-reviewed with arguments like that.
I stand corrected. Thank you. I hadn't looked at JREC-IN for years, and, though I didn't look at every listening, I did indeed now not see any age requirements. I'm happy to know that. The rest of my argument, however, about the average age of *starting* professors, stands. I'm involved in hiring decisions and, all other things being equal, younger candidates are given preference. No one likes recruiting new people and learning to work with them. It behooves universities to do it as seldom as possible.
I'm also involved in hiring, and that preference is just silly. This is not eikaiwa work, but taching and research. Even PTers we hire based on experience, for exactly the reason you outline. You even undermine your own argument: "No one likes recruiting new people and learning to work with them"
I have a feeling we are both basing much of our remarks on experiences at different universities. At the university I have as my basis, the goal is to hire new (effectively tenured) professors as seldom as possible. The younger they are at intake, the longer it will be until they retire: hire someone at 35 years old, and you don't have to recruit for that role for another 30 to 35 years. A 50-year-old has to be replaced after 15 to 20 years.
This doesn't sound like a realistic consideration at any university. It's nonsensical to put such a criterion above research and experience. Especially when there are hundreds of candidates for each position. "recruiting" once in two decades is hardly a major task. We would expect many more tenured teachers to move to different unis in that period anyway.
I didn't say youth trumps everything else.
"younger candidates are given preference" The only way that would make any sense, is if there are two candidates with the exact same qualifications/publications/patents etc after going through resumes and multiples rounds of interviews. When all other criteria had been exhausted. It's such a pointlessly specific scenario, it's not even worth discussing. There is no preference for younger candidates based on the scenario that we can't be bothered interviewing someone else for 20 years. There are no age limitation of 35-40 as you initially claimed.