Universities to act over botched admissions
The Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) has vowed to improve its admission procedures, known as the Thai University Central Admission System (TCAS), which is being introduced for the first time this year.
Prasert Kanthamanon, CUPT secretarygeneral, said the CUPT is now considering various recommendations from academics, parents and applicants who have cried foul over the faulty university admission system this year on how to improve it next year.
Mr Prasert was speaking at a forum yesterday to discuss issues surrounding TCAS at Chulalongkorn University.
The system has been criticised for failing to solve the perennial problem of seat-hogging in the third round which can happen if applicants are offered places on all four higher-educational programmes they apply to therefore tying up places on the courses until they decline three of them.
Under the current system applicants are not allowed to rank their choices in order, which makes it harder to secure a place on their course
Late last month, the CUPT allowed a group of high-school graduates who failed to get a place from the third round to choose their preferred courses.
According to the latest CUPT data, 58,075 third-round applicants have confirmed a place, while around 10,000 applicants have declined their right to the places offered.
The third round ended last week. Applications for the fourth round will be accepted between June 12 and 16.
“To avoid the seat-hogging problem in the third round from recurring, the CUPT is considering allowing applicants in the third round of TCAS next year to rank their department options in terms of preferences.
“Applicants will have to select courses in terms of preference, so places would be automatically dropped and made available to someone else,” Mr Prasert said.
“This proposed method would help avoid situations where high-school graduates who have secured university places unfairly block others.
“But the CUPT also needs cooperation from all universities as there are more than 3,000 programmes offered to graduates and each programme uses different criteria to select students,” Mr Prasert said.
Mr Prasert said other suggestions which have been presented to the CUPT include reducing the number of courses which applicants can apply for in the direct admission from four to two and to let candidates apply to more faculties in the central admission system.
“These are just some ideas. We will have to discuss them and see whether they are possible, but I can ensure that the system will be adjusted so that it benefit students,” he said.
Mr Prasert said the adjustment of the TCAS system will be discussed at a meeting in October.
There are five rounds for university admission under TCAS. Those who have already got a place in an earlier round cannot move to the next round.
To date, more than 180,000 university applicants have been accepted for a place at their favoured higher-educational programmes during the first three rounds.