Admission 2011 plan being finalised

Phirom Kamolrattanakul, Chulalongkorn University president

Phirom Kamolrattanakul, also Chulalongkorn University president, invited all stakeholders to share their views on the admission system at the UPCT conference at Burapa University on July 31  August 1. He affirmed that admission 2010 would not have any changes because it had been public for a long time.

Admission 2011 might be adjusted slightly, such as adding more PAT subjects or changing the weight of main components, he said. UPCT would meet on May 25 with the Admission 2011 forum committee and the academic and professional councils to raise issues for the Burapa University conference.

After the conference, UPCT would meet with the admission committee on August 22 to conclude the Admission 2011 criteria, he said. Changes would be slight because students must be notified three years in advance of any major variation.

Phirom's comment was made at a press conference yesterday on the General Aptitude Test/Portable Appliance Testing (GAT/PAT) examinations.

Phirom said the March exam results might appear worrying because the average scores for highschool students in the GAT/PAT were less than half.

However that was because nearly all test takers had not yet completed the higher secondary curricular and this was the country's first exam of this kind. He said the threeroundperyear organisation of GAT/PAT was to give as much opportunity as possible to students. The July exams would also allow test takers to choose the exam sites.

He said the National Institute of Education Testing Service (NIETS) emphasised there was no need to attend tutoring classes for the GAT/PAT - but many students were still keen on tutoring. He believed most took these classes because of parents, peer pressure, or an intentionally slow approach by teachers in order to collect money from tutoring classes.

This goslow tactic, he said, must be tackled by the Education Ministry as it was a serious breach of teacher ethics. NIETS publishes the GAT/PAT exam papers on its website after results are announced.

NIETS Director Utumporn Jamornmann said, after the GAT/PAT exam papers were posted on the website, some cram schools complained the papers were unlike those they had taught their students. This confirmed there was no need for tutoring for GAT/PAT, she added.

As the exam fee of Bt200 per subject was considered expensive, students did not have to take all the subjects. Those who knew which faculty they wanted, would take the required two subjects and pay only Bt400.