17 universities flunked quality exam

Jurin Laksanawisit

He lamented that 17 universities had failed to pass the assessments conducted by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (Onesqa).

He said that the poor standards have affected up to 69 fields of study at these institutes. Out of this total, 52 have clearly been not good enough.

"The university councils should regulate their  courses better. It is their responsibility to do this. They are the ones who approve the courses," Jurin said at the National Conference: 2009 The Year of Thai Higher Education Quality Enhancement.

The conference attracted more than 3,000 educators and students.

At the conference, just seven universities received awards for passing Onesqa's assessment in 2007.

They were Chulalongkorn, Kasetsart, Khon Kaen, Thammasat, Maejo and Assumption universities. The two others were the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce and Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi.

Jurin said he soon expected all 202 highereducational institutes to only arrange quality courses.

At the same conference, Higher Education Commission chairman Prof Vicharn Panich said the number of higher educational institutes was now higher than needed.

"I think we should encourage more students to opt for vocational education because the country needs graduates from these programmes. We have to look at the bigger picture," Vicharn said.