Push for Thai unis to be among the world’s top 100

The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation has joined forces with the British Council to push Thai universities to be among the world’s top 100 within 10 years.

The partnership was launched yesterday at the Thai-UK Higher Education Forum. The ministry and British Council will form the “TH-UK World Class University Consortium”, expecting to lead international collaboration between the countries by matching 15 programmes from seven Thai universities with top UK universities in various academic fields.

Furthermore, this consortium would support participating Thai universities to advance their academic activities among instructors and students, such as teaching, research and innovation capability — factors important to achieve higher world rankings.

Pasit Lorterapong, the ministry deputy permanent secretary, said the setting up of the consortium was in response to the ministry’s strategic policy and plan (2023–2027) under the “Reinventing University” objective.

“We have been pushing forward the ‘Reinventing University’ target among Thai universities to reform their operations, adapting the curriculums to address the current situation to elevate our universities into the global top 100 within the next 10 years,” he said.

“This consortium will support the government strategy of university reinvention, allowing Thai higher education institutes to build international collaboration in both academic and research areas.

“They would collaborate with UK universities and research institutes to exchange knowledge and create a more internationally connected higher education system and achieve world-class status,” he said.

He said the world ranking status was important to Thai universities as it was the reflection of Thailand’s infrastructure, and this would influence foreign investors to do business in the country.

“We should also keep in mind that rankings are not everything as we also have to focus on research improvement and ensure that we have developed the curriculum in accordance with market needs,” he added.

Helga Stellmacher, the British Council Thailand’s director, said the consortium aimed to support Thailand’s ambition to become globally competitive and internationally recognised as it embarked on the plan.

This came under the British Council’s “Going Global Partnerships” programme that targeted to connect UK education around the world.