11.3
108 -
The staff at the Baptist College is subject to rapid turn-over. Three full time staff including the previous Associate Head of Department have left during the past two years, and apart from the Head of Department, Dr. L.K. Chen. there is a serious lack of long term continuity in the department. The staff are also engaged in other activities which help to augment their income. but which puts additional constraints on their ability to enagage in course development and in more scholarly activity.
11.4 The staff contracts and staff salaries are established on
the basis of the number of course credit hours which staff teach. Members were told that a full time staff salary was based on the staff member fulfilling 12 course credit hours, and that if the credit hours to be taught were less than that, the salary would be correspondingly modified. A course credit hour is not the same as a contact hour. Two laboratory hours count equally with one lecture hour as one course credit hour. Members have found the idea of staff paid on a pro-rata basis novel, and consider that it may have contributed to the tendency for staff to work individually on their units rather than developing a corporate academic view of the course at the college campus for 35 hours per week including lecture hours.
11.5
On the other hand the Polytechnic staff salary scales are as follows:
Principal Lecturer
HK $
11,000 -
-
Senior Lecturer
HK $
15,000 per month 9,000 - 13,000 per month
Lecturer
HK $
5,000 - 8,500 per month
Part-time staff
HK $
900 for a 20 hour credit
Assistant Lecturer HK $ 3,500
course.
5,000 per month
In addition expatriate staff and senior local staff get subsidised housing at 7 1/2% of their salary. Staff on short term contract receive 25% bonus on termination of contract in lieu of superannuation.
11.6 Industry currently offers higher salaries but not
sufficiently so as to provide either a strong incentive for the Polytechnic staff to move out or to cause disenchantment among the staff in the department. The atmosphere and conditions in the Polytechnic are pleasant and it appears to be an attractive environment in which to work. There is a slow turnover in staff. The department has gained occasional recruits from staff at the Baptist College, and in general finds no problem in recruiting staff at PL and SL levels.