Dr Pavich Tongroach, secretary-general of the Commission of Higher Education, will this week play host to one of the most important gatherings of educators from around the world - the World University Presidents Summit.

Thailand's hosting of the event, at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre from July Wednesday to Saturday, is among the activities planned to mark the 60th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne.

"We hosted the World University Presidents Summit here back in 1984. His Majesty the King kindly presided over the opening ceremony. Later, we proposed to host another summit of world university presidents prior to the 2007 International University Sport competition. This time, it's a fitting tribute to mark this auspicious occasion [His Majesty's anniversary]. In fact, the summit's core theme, 'Reflections on Diversity and Harmonisation', was inspired by HM the King's great efforts in turning diversity into social harmony and in turning conflict into understanding and cooperation throughout his reign," Pavich said.

"One of the sub-themes at this summit is sufficiency and sustainability. In this respect, I think His Majesty's concept of a 'sufficiency economy' is highly valuable. It's also applicable in the field of education management. For the past several decades, most countries around the world have approached education as providing welfare to their citizens and children, largely because in the older days education was more or less the privilege of the elite. In most European nations, for instance, education was until recently state-funded.

"I guess things have changed a lot in the post-Cold War era. Global politics has become more stable, as has the global economy. In the process, the middle classes have expanded rapidly, resulting in a sharp rise in demand for education services worldwide. Now about half of those finishing secondary school in Thailand, for instance, pursue some form of higher education," said Pavich, a former rector of Maha Sarakham University and ex-dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Chulalongkorn University.

"The trend in other countries is similar as education is no longer elitist. One of the major consequences is that the public faces increasing pressure from financing education for the growing number of students. The cost of education, especially in science and technology fields, is now very expensive. In other words, education is becoming less and less a state benefit. This means students will have to pay more fees as education services become more market-oriented, as is now the case for privately-owned universities in Thailand. As for state colleges, most students still pay only some 20 per cent of the actual cost, but the trend is heading towards less state subsidies," he says.

Pavich said that HM the King's stress on self-sufficiency and sustainability should be applied to the management of educational resources in Thailand since the country currently spends more than Bt200 billion per year on public education, accounting for about 20 per cent of the annual state budget.

"Basically, sufficiency means avoiding extremes. In education management, therefore, we should emphasise efficiency by removing all unnecessary spending or luxuries. In terms of quality, we also have to be more cost-conscious and compromising if necessary, but some fields such as medicine should be exceptions," said Pavich, who earned his PhD in neuro-pharmacology from the University of London in 1977. In his earlier years as a researcher, Pavich specialised in herbal medicine and neuroscience. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Pan Asian-Oceania Commission for Neuroscience and served as secretary of the Federation of Asian-Oceania Neuroscience Societies.

"The core theme of this summit is to reflect on diversity and harmonisation. There will be more than a thousand university presidents, vice presidents, rectors and educators, as well as other high-ranking officials in the global education sector, taking part in this conference. My experience underlines the fact that networking and cooperation are the foundation for harmonisation. Recognising diversity and promoting harmonisation will lead to better international understanding and global peace," Pavich said.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com