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Published on December 13, 2007

Education Minister Wijit Srisa-an said yesterday the CU draft bill itself was not a problem but there were internal conflicts between the university's administration and some lecturers.

As other protesting groups managed to stop the NLA from working, Wijit said the assembly had 40 laws to consider but only had this month to complete them.

He said the NLA would see if it could work today and a decision on whether the draft bill was dropped would be based on rationality rather than pressure from protesters.

Some 50 CU teachers and students yesterday morning blocked Parliament's side entrance, carrying signs saying "University privatisation will make executives richer but students will pay expensive tuition fees" and "The poor can no longer study at CU if you take it away" and "Pull the CU draft bill out for a public hearing".

If the NLA proceeds with passing the bill, protesters will either submit a petition to HM the King or negotiate with CU executives to reorganise a public hearing, according to Porpan Vachajitpan, president of the CU lecturers' council.

However, if the draft bill is not approved, Porpan will propose the establishment of a working team comprising CU students, teachers and personnel to improve the internal operating system. He said the university was able to manage without having to become autonomous.

Porpan said protesters would camp outside Parliament if the NLA insisted on passing the draft law.

Third-year political science student Panithan Borivejjanont said some 20 students joined the protest because they feared that once the institute became autonomous, there would be no guarantee of educational quality and a solid checks-and-balances system.

In previous public hearings, some 80 per cent of the CU community disagreed with autonomy, but 20 executives had still pushed for the agenda, prompting the protest.

A petition to the King remains an option and protesters have gathered signatures from 100 students and 50 teachers.

Fourth-year political science student Nott Hemin said that if the NLA passed the law, students would gather 10,000 signatures to cancel the law, as allowed by the 2007 Constitution.

 The Nation