Ohec blasts universities as sub-par

Almost 200 university curricula have fallen short of the required standards, the Office of Higher Education Commission (Ohec) said yesterday, adding it would name them on its website shortly.

Ohec secretary-general Supat Champatong said the commission took note of the assessment results of the quality of education they provided for the 2015 and 2016 academic years.

He said 182 out of 9,099 curricula failed to reach the standards required by the commission for those two consecutive years.

This is first time Ohec will release such a list on its website (mua.go.th). He described naming the universities which fail to meet standards as a necessary step to ensure students get the education they deserve.

Mr Supat said the commission ordered him to inform university councils that had fallen short of the mark and request they stop enroling new students.

The universities will be asked to improve their curricula to put them on par with the required standard within 90 days, Mr Supat said.

He blamed a shortfall of teachers for causing the lapse in many cases.

“Most of the substandard curricula show problems of having insufficient lecturers and their course structures failing to meet criteria,” he said.

The commission will meet later to sound out further measures if the curricula are not improved, he said.

Such measures will potentially include asking the university councils to close the problematic courses and asking them to transfer students to other faculties.

“The commission has no power to order universities to stop enroling students or close their curricula directly, but it can seek their cooperation,” said Mr Supat.

Early last year, eight PhD courses or “doctoral study programmes” or “PhD programmes” were found to be substandard, according to an annual audit by Ohec.