Higher education policies for international programs at Thai universities and colleges as provided by the Commission on Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Thailand

Thailand's Higher Education Development Plan has been formulated and integrated into the successive Five-year National Economic and Social Development Plan, interfacing educational activities to the economic, social and cultural goals of national development. The Commission on Higher Education (CHE), Royal Thai Ministry of Education, has developed Thailand's Long-range Plan for Higher Education Development (2000-2014), in which internationalization of Thai higher education is one of the main emphases. Currently Thailand has been implementing the Ninth Education Development Plan (2002-2006). Significant policies are as follows:

1. To develop quality of people both academically and professionally with skills necessary for the country, community, and local development. Higher education has to instill students to be intellectual, moralistic, ethical while having creative thinking and pursuing a life-long learning in order to build up competitiveness of the country.
   
   
2. To formulate body of knowledge and local wisdom for capacity building and encourage research and innovation that support the country, community, and local development and to maintain economic, social and environmental stabilization. Higher education plays a significant role in solving the country's problem and crisis and also promoting Thailand as a regional hub for education.
   
   
3. To build a solid foundation for the local and community development that encourages self reliance and responsibility and to be able to catch up with the changing of the world.
   
   
4. To improve higher education administration system both at governmental and institutional levels that will allow more flexibility and efficiency and enhance quality of higher education and be able to cope with economic, social, political and technological changes. In addition, the private sector and communities are encouraged to play a greater role in the delivering of higher education.

Quality in focus

The CHE has a significant role to encourage full-fledged quality assurance systems within all public and private higher education institutions by providing policy guidelines, support for knowledge sharing activities, and implementing related international projects. In terms of external quality assurance, it is conducted by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA), a public organization set up in late 2000.

institutions of higher learning are responsible for their Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) process consisting of quality control, quality audit and quality assessment. Each higher education institution has to prepare a self-study report that could consist of nine aspects of quality factors provided by the CHE. They are 1) philosophy, commitments, objective and implementation plan, 2) teaching and learning, 3) student development activities, 4) research, 5) academic service to the community, 6) preservation of art and literature, 7) administration and management, 8) finance and budgeting and 9) quality assurance and enhancement. However, each university/institution is free to choose to adopt or develop any QA system suitable to its own contexts.

The CHE serves as a link with the ONESQA to ensure effective communication flow, mutual understanding and further actions for institutions after external quality assessments are completed.

In order for Thailand to play a more active and dynamic role in the Asia and the Pacific region and the world community, the CHE has given prime importance and continuous support to the heightening of quality of instructors and programs. The CHE has invested intensively on staff development and upgrading facilities and laboratories of Thai higher education institutions.

All through the years, Thai higher education institutions have worked in close collaboration with many leading institutions around the world from Australia and Japan to Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Undergraduate programs requirements

Applicants for undergraduate program must complete their upper secondary education or equivalent to grade 12 in order to apply for study at a bachelor's degree in Thailand. In some cases, the examination is required and followed by an interview, a physical examination or an aptitude test which may differ from one institution to another. Application forms can be obtained by sending requests directly to universities/institutions.

Graduate programs requirements

Applicants for graduate programs must have a bachelor's degree or equivalent. Besides officially needed documents accompanying application forms, the applicants may be requested to take such additional graduate examination as GRE or GMAT. The process may also include an interview.

Registration

Students usually enroll in at least 9 credits/hour but no more than 22 credits/hour per semester for undergraduate programs. Graduate students are required to take between 9 and 15 credits hour. The process of registration must be completed before the class starts.

Candidates for the bachelor's degree must complete the minimum of 120-150 credits. The grade point average must be maintained at least 2.00 or better on the scale of four points in order to achieve the degree. Candidates for master's degree must complete minimum of 36 credits with the grade point average at least 3.00 on the scale of 4 points. The doctorate degree program requires candidates with a bachelor's degree to complete a minimum of 72 credits hour while master's degree holders must complete the program with a minimum of 48 credits. (See also: GPA, grading, and examination)

Information on this page provided by:

Commission on Higher Education, Bureau of International Cooperation Strategy (May 2007)
328 Si Ayutthaya Road, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Web site: http://www.mua.go.th

Back to Thai higher education