20% of uni courses ‘not up to standard’

More than 20% of higher education courses run by Thai universities fail to meet required standards, according to the Office of the Auditor General (OAG).

According to Isara News Agency, the OAG recently sent a letter to the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec), urging the body to weed out all substandard programmes operated by higher education institutions nationwide to improve the quality of the courses they offer.

The move came after a probe by the OAG found that 2,030 out of a total of 8,949 higher education courses in Thailand broke Ohec regulations.

They either had a higher number of students in the programmes than permitted or they did not have the required number of qualified instructors.

The OAG said the problem is mainly among education faculties, especially in Master’s in Educational Administration courses that are used to gauge the academic standing of teachers.

Ohec secretary-general Supat Jampathong said the commission will perform a post-audit evaluation in response to the tip-off it received from the OAG.

“If the universities in question are indeed discovered to be providing substandard courses as claimed by the OAG, they will be temporarily suspended from recruiting new students into their programmes until the problem has been resolved,” Mr Supat said.

Meanwhile, Ohec also revealed the names of 10 private universities and colleges offering 98 substandard courses for bachelor’s and master’s programmes which have been enrolling too many students.

The 10 universities are Bangkokthonburi University, North Chiang Mai University, Pathumthani University, Phitsanulok University, Western University, Thongsook College, Siam Technology College, Institute of Technology Ayothaya, Rajapark Institute and Ratchathani University.

Earlier, Ohec conducted a special audit of several private universities after it received complaints claiming many institutions were accepting more students into some of their programmes than is allowed.

The investigation found a total of 98 bachelor’s and master’s programmes run by the 10 private universities failed to meet minimum requirements.

Out of the 98 substandard courses, 78 were taught at other campuses or off campus, some of which were rooms in shopping malls.

Only 20 were offered at the main campuses. About 90% of the problem related to a lack of teachers for the courses, according to Ohec’s chief.

Mr Supat said Ohec has already invoked Section 84 of the Private University Act warning all 10 private universities to fix the problems by the end of this month.