Pros
Some excellent (if disenfranchised) colleagues The campus is new and up-to-date amenities.
Cons
I cannot say that XJTLU has bad students or that many of my colleagues at the university were not friendly and helpful. The sole problem with XJTLU is at Dean and management level. I was told 'off the record' not to apply for a position at the university which would have seen me climb the ladder of employment (despite the fact the role was given to someone with far less experience and qualifications than myself). When the upper management stooge who told me this was asked if this was true, it was outright denied. Very typical of the goons who run this university. This same upper management stooge was later the subject of a complaint made by myself and someone else - the complaint and investigation was done by his best friend and with the strings being pulled all the way through. This is XJTLU. It is not University of Liverpool (it basically hires the name) ala Nottingham Ningbo. It runs as a seperate institution which means it gets by with its own gangster style rules with no one to answer to. This means that many staff work under the bullying and harassment of upper management who in some cases are Communist Party sympathisers and have no sympathy for any complaints or due procedure that may arise. During my stay at XJTLU the staff turnover was overwhelming - no one would stay for long and the reasons given were common: upper management began to harass and bully them (for things as simple as a basic disagreement with a favoured member of staff or for incidents which were years old but suddenly and surprisingly reopened come contract negotiations), no pension, no schooling for children in the area, heavy admin loads with so many people leaving it means more modules needing covered too - and with short notice. Meanwhile new 'Deans' or HODs are favoured from abroad even if they have never been to China before or have any relevant experience. I would also wager that, in the humanities at least, most of your dept will not be doing research - and who can blame them? The incentives are just not there. You need to be insane and possibly a masochist to accept a job at XJTLU and the increasing numbers of bad reviews on Glassdoor should indicate to anyone curious of how bad things are getting - tuitition fees are increasing, students are flocking to the uni... it all adds up to more money for upper management and the Party thugs - your job, however, is to stand in line and remain quiet at all times. God help you should you ever even have a suggestion about student welfare or anything! I found a generally low moral amongst colleagues from both abroad and domestic at the university and many of them were keeping their eye on opportunities elsewhere while working at XJTLU. The revolving door of staff across the uni meant that not many people cared that much about how good a job they were doing or how things would pan out in the long run and it was quite sad as the students deserve more than that sort of attitude. It’s a hollow university that looks impressive on the outside with fancy new buildings and the possibility of getting dual Chinese/Uk degrees for the students. After some time and a closer look you can see that on the inside it is festering with deep rooted problems and shifty goings on.
