Expat Community > Saudi Arabia

Mircenzo
Joined 2010
Posts: 2

Saudi Arabia: salary question (faculty position)

14 years ago

Hello,

My wife and I have PhD's from North American Universities (Engineering and Science respectively). I just got my degree, my wife got it 5 years ago and she worked as a postdoc and an assistant professor in US. We recently got offers from Saudi Arabia. We are seriously considering it. However we have questions regarding the salary, which offer to accept (read: where to live), and how to negotiate. I got an offer from a university in Dhahran. The proposed salary is 145,000 SR per year plus 7200 RY of transportation allowance, and free furnished housing. We asked for assistance to find my wife a job, they sent a few university names in the city were she might find an employment. She got an offer from a university in Mecca. The proposed salary is 125,000 SR per year plus 25000 RY of housing allowance. They are also trying to find something for me. My wife has also been short-listed for a position in Al-Khobar but nothing is certain and of course no salary offer yet. 1- Now, our first question is how are these salaries (compared to the cost of life + compared to the standard faculty salary)? Compared to the US, this is very low (especially in engineering, assistant profs start their career around $75,000). Also, we are not sure if the offer is made based on your CV or your country of origin (we are currently living in US but we are Eastern European). 2- A second question is about where to live (read: which offer to accept). We believe that if one of us accepts the offer, the other one will be able to find something as well in the same city or close. Is this a reasonable assumption? How is the job market in KSA in academia? What we would like to learn is in which part of the country we will have both more opportunities, we will have a more pleasant life with our 3 years old, and we will be able to save more money, since saving money is one of our motives. But the real motivation for me is that in US the positions I may ending up finding have a heavier teaching load than the one in KSA. In clear, I want to see the next two years or so in KSA as a postdoc where I will do a little teaching and a lot of research (also thank to the paid vacation, I am planning to continue research in the US or Europe at summer). Does this sound reasonable? 3- Our final question is can we negotiate and how to do it.

Thank you.

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Saudi Arabia: salary question (faculty position)

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