Uni exam overhaul just the beginning
The Office of the Higher Education Commission and representatives of universities nationwide recently decided to change the entrance examination. If things go as planned, the current system where each university arranges its own examination and admits students directly will be scrapped in two years. Under the new system, high school graduates will take a central university entrance exam scheduled some time after the middle of March each year. They will continue to sit the usual GAT/PAT technical tests as well as exams for the national nine core subjects. After the results are announced, students will use the scores to apply for the faculties and universities of their choice. They will be allowed up to four choices.
The revision of the entrance examination system is meant to provide fairness to all students. Critics and students have long complained that the direct admission system offers unfair advantages for richer applicants who can afford to travel to multiple universities in and outside of Bangkok for exams and pay the associated fees.
When the exam results are announced, applicants enrol in the more competitive universities and abandon the places they have secured in other universities, leaving many empty positions to be filled.
However, the proposed entrance exam system does not fix the root cause of the unequal opportunities due to the decision-makers’ focus on quantity rather than the quality of teaching in past decades.
The issue is not a shortage of education funding, but the failure to spend it wisely. The expansion of educational opportunity is often translated by decision-makers into the establishment of new colleges that offer useless courses.
While high school students are competing very hard to enrol in recognised faculties or well-known universities, the lesser-known courses are left empty.
Universities are facing an oversupply problem as Thailand has a decreasing birth rate, while new universities, both public and private, have been established in recent years.
In the previous academic year, about 170 educational institutions from both private and public sectors nationwide had space for about 150,000 students. However, more than 30,000 positions were left vacant.
In short, while high school students are competing fiercely to get into certain universities, some colleges face difficulty in attracting students. They are either known to have poor-quality teaching or are not recognised academically. Also, some empty colleges offer courses that fail to serve the market’s demand.
The mismatch of universities and students reflects a lack of direction from the top about producing human resources for the future. While there are some university spaces left vacant, the business sector has complained about the lack of technicians or specialists who are needed for economic development.
Besides, Thai colleges are not known for producing students with the ability to innovate or become entrepreneurs, which is essential for them to survive in the future.
Some universities offer liberal arts studies to match the needs of students who value holding a bachelor’s degree of any kind over the actual skills and knowledge taught. They would prefer to study less demanding subjects hoping to graduate easily than to pursue a degree in more academically demanding fields such as science.
The low ranking of Thai universities on global and Asian levels is evidence the university system has to be improved, not just the entrance examination system.
Business may not be crying out for such a high number of university graduates, but qualified human resources will help Thailand overcome the middle-income trap.
The system as it stands is outdated. Colleges should offer both academic and hands-on training to provide students with life skills such as the ability to fix problems, to work as a team and to show leadership. Colleges and universities should open up to outside partners such as the private sector to produce graduates with practical skills. The current university system, however, is too rigid to nurture students to grow. While some students are equipped with the resources to enrol in highly selective colleges, many are left to spend four years in a bad university. This is despite the fact that college should play a vital role in helping students excel in their field and improve their skills in their chosen vocation.
The revision of the entrance exam system may help fix a small part of the problem. But the fundamental issue that prevents equal access to education will be unresolved unless universities and colleges are reformed.
The revision of the entrance examination alone does not fix the gap in university quality and the unequal opportunity of students to get access to good education, which is in fact their fundamental right.
Critics and students have long complained that the direct admission system offers unfair advantages for richer applicants