The recent international rankings that show almost all leading Thai universities plunged in scores and ratings must serve as a wake-up call to the government and policymakers -- Thailand's higher education system needs improvement.
This year, only 10 Thai universities made it into the Times Higher Education magazine's top 350 Asia University Rankings. Seven of them scored lower than last year. Two universities -- Mahidol and Kasetsart -- maintained their 2017 ranking. Only Suranaree University of Technology made a leap, to 168th from 190th last year.
Unbelievably, Mahidol University is the only Thai education institute which made it into the top 100.
Soonruth Bunyamanee is deputy editor, Bangkok Post.
The rankings are based on criteria in five areas: teaching (the learning environment), research (volume, income and reputation), citations (research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research) and industry income (knowledge transfer).
This is not the first time most Thai universities have dropped in the international rankings. Last year, six out of 10 Thai universities nosedived from the previous year in the Times Higher Education's table.
The government and education policymakers should be alarmed by this trend and come up with measures to address the issue. But I have not heard anyone talking about it.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha seems to be more concerned with other rankings, especially the Bloomberg's Misery Index for 2018 which he claimed showed Thailand is the happiest country in the world for a record second consecutive year. But the index actually ranked Thailand as "the least miserable" country due to its low inflation and unemployment rate.
In fact, the government should not be overjoyed by Bloomberg's Misery Index ranking for two reasons.
Firstly, being ranked as the least miserable country does not necessarily translate into being the happiest as the prime minister claimed.
Second, the Misery Index defines "employment" in Thailand in a unique way. Thailand's unemployment rate has been remarkably low for many years because the agriculture and "informal" sectors, such as street vending and motorcycle taxi services, absorb most workers who lose their jobs in the formal sector.
If people lose their formal jobs in companies and return home to work on their family's farm for at least one hour a week, the Misery Index considers them employed. The same criteria goes for street vendors and motorcycle taxis.
The Misery Index's ranking keeps Gen Prayut happy with "good news", but the government should take the bad news of the plummeting of Thai universities in the rankings seriously. As it is promoting economic development as part of its "Thailand 4.0" agenda, educational improvement cannot be overlooked.
The government's plan for the economy focuses mainly on 10 target industries seen as Thailand's new growth engines. They are next-generation cars; smart electronics; medical and wellness tourism; agriculture and biotechnology; food; robotics; logistics and aviation; biofuels; biochemical; and medical sectors.
These industries require a large number of highly-skilled, knowledgeable and well-trained workers. The latest university rankings have raised a question as to whether Thai institutions are ready to produce graduates of sufficient quality.
With the progress of Thailand's economic development, which is comparable to many countries in the region, and the long-standing establishment of these universities, I think at least half of the 10 best Thai universities should be able to make the top 50 in Asian university rankings, not just the 100-350 range.
In fact, Thailand is among the world's top education spenders relative to GDP. But various educational tests and rankings have proven that this budget allocation has totally failed to improve the quality of the country's schools and universities.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha poses for a photo with university students in Chanthaburi. The plunge of Thai universities in the latest Asia University Rankings needs urgent attention by policymakers. (Photo by Wichan Charoenkiatpakul)
In my view, one of the factors hindering the improvement and efficiency of Thai universities is the policy affording them autonomy that has, for decades, separated higher education administration from the state.
The policy was aimed at reducing public universities' financial reliance on the state and encouraging them to become self sufficient.
Conceptually, the policy gives universities the freedom to manage their own academic development while the state has more budget left for other areas of the economy.
But, in practice, it keeps universities busy generating more revenue while spending less time on academic achievement. That's why we have seen a number of academic courses of dubious quality initiated purely to generate income.
As a result of this policy of autonomy, governments have not relied much on the research and development work of universities to support state development projects. That means these institutes lack sufficient funding from the state for research and development. More than 100,000 academic studies have been left on the shelf so far.
Of the total education budget of more than 500 billion baht a year, some 70% goes to basic education development and only about 20% is allocated to higher education of any kind.
Facilities for research and development are inferior in most Thai universities while academic research is conducted without any kind of joined-up thinking with regards to the country's development needs.
The universities are told by the government to make their research relevant to local issues. This results in a lack of internationalism in their academic focus.
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education's editorial director of global rankings, said Thailand needs to drive up its research capacity.
The demographic shift towards an ageing society has also played a role in the tumbling ratings. Thai universities are faced with lower attendance rates because of this, he noted.
To facilitate future development, higher education is as important as other levels of education and needs the state to take serious steps to improve its quality and efficiency.