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Published on August 10, 2007

At private universities, students pay the full cost, Higher Education Commission secretary-general Krisanapong Kiratikorn said in an address to the meeting. He said it was impossible to ask state university students to pay a higher proportion of the real cost of tuition.

Krisanapong said the root of problems in higher education was size. About half of all universities have fewer than 6,000 students and attendant administration and financial problems. He wants them merged or closed.

Commercialised education - departments and entire schools existing purely for profit - was affecting quality, he added.

In order to strengthen higher education, the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment is undertaking a three-year evaluation.

Those institutions that fail in three years' time should be merged or close, he demanded.

He added the commission would make recommendations to the minister to merge or close sub-standard schools.

He wanted to make success a condition for receiving student-loan funding.

Krisanapong believed the commission and standards office had to use student-loan money as a stick to control the proliferation of universities and courses. It can also be used as a carrot ensuring the country turns out the graduates its economy needs.

"We should not let all poor kids borrow from the fund if they are not going to study in the fields the labour market demands. This way they will have jobs when they graduate," he added.

Nasty political squabbles in university administration result from "weak university councils which have insiders as committee members rather than outsiders".

This means lack of control and poor administration. He wants more independent people running schools.

He told delegates higher education in Thailand began back in 1916 with the establishment of the Civil Service Training School, which later became Chulalongkorn University.

Since 1970, higher education grew fast along with the country. Several universities were established upcountry.

The 1990s saw major reform sparked by the oil-price crisis, industrial growth and international trade and technology.

The country had its first higher-education development plan - a 15-year plan spanning 1990 to 2004.

It aimed to expand higher-educational opportunities and access by the poor. The Student Loan Fund was established.

The plan included the promotion of university privatisation, public-sector participation in assessment, the 50:50 ratio for science to arts students and the 3:6:1 ratio for university lecturers with doctorates, masters and bachelors degrees, Krisanapong said.

The plan saw students asked to pay more towards their education, too, he added.

Many goals were achieved but the 50:50 science-to-arts ratio was being achieved at private schools only but 24 state institutions have met the lecturer ratio, Krisanapong said.

The National Act of 1999 led to a second education reform plan that merged the Education and University Affairs ministries and overhauled the way higher education was funded.

Today, Thailand has 155 universities - 70 state and 67 private - and 18 community colleges with 2.1 million students.

Supinda Na Mahachai

The Nation