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Published on August 21, 2007

HEC deputy secretary-general Suchart Muangkaew said he had spoken about the role of higher education and its impact on Thailand's future at a recent seminar in Illinois in the United States.

Representatives from eight other countries, including Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia and the US, were at the seminar.

Suchart said he had touched on the predicted decline in Thailand's student population in the next 20 years based on the drop in birth rates from 1.5 million per year to 700,000 per year. This decline has already started to affect the number of students enrolled, he said, citing the 11,000 schools under the Basic Education Commission that had less than 120 students.

The 402 vocational colleges, aiming for a student intake of 120,000 a year, only get about 97,000, he said, adding there were also enough seats available at universities.

He said this decline had prompted educational institutions and authorities to prepare for a bleak future, adding that it would be a better idea to merge small schools offering basic education with vocational college curriculum. He also said that the quality of university curricula needed to be improved, the institutions' budgets had to be used more efficiently, the teaching staff had to be trained, researched and supported and the administration had to be kept more connected with the private sector.

The eight countries, also suffering from a similar drop in students, agreed that the quality of education could not be compromised and a system that ensured quality needed to be in place to produce graduates who could find work anywhere in the world. Suchart said they expected new graduates to be up to par in language proficiency, vocational skills, work ethics and morality.