University competition 'a lose-lose situation'

"Private universities cater for around 250,000 students nationwide nowadays, helping the state to save Bt12.5 billion a year in its educational budget," Boonserm, emeritus president of Dhurakij Pundit University, said during a discussion on financial management to improve higher education.

In a contest between state and private universities, " both face a lossloss situation. More students in staterun universities means they have to spend more, while fewer students in private ones will force them to lose too. There's no need for the state and private sector to compete with each other," Boonserm said.

He urged the state to use the budget and resources it could save to increase the quality of its universities.

Boonserm said he had found a higher number of students not only in staterun universities, but also in basic and vocational education. "The number of students in staterun schools has increased eight per cent and in staterun vocational colleges by 65 per cent, compared to 10 years ago."

"The financing of universities to produce [a certain number of] graduates should be changed from the supply side implemented at present. The budget to produce graduates has to cover all costs relating to the producing process, including lecturers' salaries," Boonserm said.

"We should provide higher salaries for lecturers who teach more students effectively. This is demand side finance, not just giving them salary following an old covenant, without considering their performance and workload," he added.

Thossaporn Sirisamphan, Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC) secretarygeneral, said a new model to fund higher education institutes was being created by OPDC, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Office of National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) and the Budget Bureau.

The model would push for ONESQA's academic assessment results to be linked with budget allocations for higher educational institutes.

"Based on the British system that links assessment results with budget allocations, we will run a similar programme — using the new model with 13 independent [formergovernment] universities as pilots for three years before extending to 67 others supervised by the OPDC, if the model is workable," Thossaporn said.

"After the assessment, higher education institutes with low risks will receive their educational budget together with incentives. Institutes with medium risk will get only the educational budget, but others with high risks will get both educational budget and an improvement plan, and rescue teams will help them improve the educational quality," he added.

Thossaporn expected to propose the model to Cabinet by the end of July and its implementation would probably start at the end of August.

The discussion was held at HEC's national conference at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani on July 3.