They have also played down concerns that the transformation will lead to higher tuition fees and the loss of educational opportunities for cash-strapped youths.

Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) president Wiroon Tungcharoen said the autonomous status would not affect the tuition fees or academic excellence.

"By becoming an autonomous institute, our management will become more independent and more efficient. Under the bureaucratic system, the management is not flexible enough to compete with overseas institutes," he said.

He said the university would become more self-reliant through the transformation, instead of just waiting for state subsidies.

"We can earn income by putting research findings to economic use," he said, adding the university's income had not relied solely on tuition fees.

He dismissed arguments that tuition fees would skyrocket after state universities became autonomous.

"Such arguments have distorted the truth. To raise tuition fees, each university will have to win approval from its council that will ensure justice for all sides. Aside from that, we have to consider the economic context to justify tuition-fee rates," Wiroon said.

Currently, the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) is in the process of deliberating six bills for the transformation of six state universities into autonomous institutes.

These universities are: the SWU, Burapha University, Chulalongkorn University (CU), Naresuan University, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, and Thaksin University.

Wiroon said the SWU was planning to raise its tuition fees not because it was going to become autonomous, but because it had not raised any tuition fees during the past 12 years.

Thammasat University rector and NLA member Suraphol Nitikraipoj explained that the transformation of state universities into autonomous institutes was not the same as privatisation as when the Petroleum Authority of Thailand became PTT Plc.

"The autonomous institute is still under state supervision. It will still receive state subsidies," he said.

He said the autonomous status would not affect tuition fees, because state universities also had the right to raise tuition fees when deemed appropriate. He added that the welfare of university lecturers and staff would not be threatened after the transformation took place.

King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi's former chairman Dr Krissanapong Kirtikara said his university had received subsidies from the government throughout the past eight years since this university became autonomous.

"The state subsidy has increased every year," he said. His university was the first state university to become an autonomous institute in the country.

He added that the university had raised its tuition fees every five years regardless of its status. Krissanapong also dismissed reports that some faculties like liberal arts would be shut down following the state universities' transformation because they did not make money. "These faculties have operated as usual at this campus," he said.

CU deputy rector Dr Kua Wongboonsin, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University president Pratya Vesarach, Burapha University president Suchart Upatham, and National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) president Preecha Jarungidanan vowed to go ahead with their plan to make their institutes autonomous.

Mae Fah Luang University president Vanchai Sirichana, whose term as head of the University President Council of Thailand will start next month, said the public should not be worried that the universities would have to sell their academic programmes to a level that degrees would be sold.

"If an institute does so, it will be doomed," he said.

Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn said if universities could not handle the internal conflicts over their transformation plan, they were unlikely to be able to manage themselves when they become autonomous.

"Only universities that are truly prepared for the transformation will be supported in their move to become autonomous," Wijit said.

Recently, he had withdrawn bills for the transformation of a few universities that were still perceived as not ready for the change.