Higher Education Reform in Thailand

Abstract

The need for current education reform in Thailand starts with the problem of low educational at­ tainment of the Thai people due to the low transition rate of primary school graduates to lower secondary level. It was realized that to be able to compete in the world market, Thailand could no longer rely on cheap labor as an incentive to production and inducement of foreign invest­ ment. An attempt has been made to reform the Thai education system with a commitment to expand the basic education to 12 years in the year 2002. An increase in basic education will lead to a need to expand the supply of higher education in the future. With the advance in communi­ cation technology and increasing longevity, the new generation of students who look for higher education will vary in age, needs, and places of study. To meet this new challenge, the higher education institutions must be flexible in their management of resources, personnel and curricula design. All state universities in Thailand are scheduled to be autonomous by the year 2002. This will in effect change the status of people working in state higher education institutions from civil servants to university employees. It is also expected that some criteria based on quality and equity will be used in allocating government budget to these institutions. Accountability of state autnomous universities will be required, and there will be an external evaluation by independent organization every five years. Internal evaluation is expected to be carried out by institutions themselves annually. The imposition of the evaluation process is hoped to improve the quality of education provided by all higher education institutions.