Hi all, if any one is considering applying for positions at the private university Yang En in Fujian province theymay be interested in my comments.

The university is set about 30km from Quanzhou city, so would not suit any one who likes a lively night out.
The environment is beautiful, lovely mountains, lake in the campus grounds, magnificent university buildings. Friendly students and very friendly Chinese teachers.

This semester the government reduced the number of freshmen to about 2,750 and had ordered the administration to refurbish the students accommodation. Some of the building maintenance is neglected and classrooms are in disrepair.

Teacher's accommodation is in a 20 storey building, ok when the lifts work but not so good when they don't (as for four days earlier this month, Dec 2010).

Other universities provide good accommodation, Yang En can best be described as basic, and the newly arriving teacher is first taken to the local Metro in Quanzhou to buy bedding, quilts etc, plates, cups, etc as these are not provided. The apartment kitchen likewise is basic, no micro wave just a two burner gas ring and a fridge/freezer. There was not even drinking water provided when I arrived. The living room has one armchair and two plastic garden chairs. The university do not provide a computer in the apartment (as other universities do) and the internet is around 60RMB per month. Utilities, water electric , gas are the teachers responsibility and a deduction is made from the salary, the university do not give salary advice slips. They provide a TV but you must pay a monthly charge. There is no free bus service at weekends to the city -that was stopped last year.
There were about five years ago over fifty foreign teachers, now there are just five westerners and 8 Fillipino. Of the five western teachers three of them are there because they have either Chinese or Fillipino partners. This semester three western teacers walked out because of changes in the terms and conditions of employment. Salary is usually paid late and over time payments have now been recalculated and will be paid at the end of term. There has also been two big walk outs of Chinese teachers in the last 12 months due to problems with salaries. There is now an acute shorage of teachers and most teachers are being asked to teach extra subjects (business law, social work, accountancy) when they have no experience of the subjects. This last semester salaries were cut by 10% and oral English teachers are contracted for 18hrs plus attendance one evening a week at the English corner is mandatory if some one does not attend he is fined 200RMB. Teachers are asked to sign their contract when it is blank and supplements and handbooks which form part of the contract are changed at the administrations whim.

So nice place, but the choice is yours. There are other adverse comments about the university on other sites, some are justified others are perhaps not.If you want further details feel free to email me :-teachersfromtheUK@hotmail.co.uk,
best wishes
George