bkkboy06

Degrees at any University are hardly worth anything. Universities rarely teach students a thing. It is students who learn - and the assessment system is what determines whether you have learnt enough.

If there is a weakness in the THai university system it has to do with how rigorous is the assessment system.

To improve the value of a Thai degree all that needs doing is to be harder in evaluating students.

I can't agree more. Very well said.

I usually don't chip in with anti Thai sentiments, but on this occasion I cant help myself.

Is this article taking the p1ss? The Thais with enough dough go to school abroad. The bread and butter degrees in this country are a waste of time. I have read the syllabus and looked at the 1st year physics course in a Bachelor's science degree. I was doing that same material at school. And if they wish to become an international hub, they need to lecture in English. And who is going to do that? Thai lecturers? I wet myself laughing ...

Whose Physics syllabus did you read? Did you try Mahidol's / Chulalongkorn's / Kasetsart's? I went to the last one (KU) and when I took Physics I and II quite a few years back (in '02-'03), the materials were pretty much concurrent with the American textbook that I read to supplement it (gotta admit the Thai version was a bit lacking in exercise questions). The materials were calculus-based and the exams were application-focused. And no, they didn't pass everyone. Half of the people scored so low that they dropped out, including myself, and retried either the following year or over the summer. Yes, the Thai programs are that tough. We were lectured in Thai but most of the materials on the powerpoint slides and handouts, from 2nd year onwards, were in English or a bad attempt at translation, which required us to go see the original English textbook anyways.

The toughness helped though. Most of us who went for graduate degrees, either here or overseas in the West, did comparatively well. My best friend is getting a free ride at a reputable university a few hours away from Stockholm doing molecular bio, getting paid for it by the Swedish, and he's a star student there. Quite a few others could go on to Edinburgh, Cornell, a Grande Ecole in southwestern France (forgot the name), and the like (either as grad students or exchange student), or at least they would get accepted to present at oversea conferences.

However, in my opinion, Thailand can't be a hub for STEM education just yet. The undergrad curriculum that I took, despite the rigor, lacks in practical usage and internships were not up-to-date or high in quality and connections as those offered at Polytechnics in Singapore and Malaysia. The students will study lots of theory, but the kids will need to dig the lab skills by themselves by contacting the profs and such. Job-hunting is also initially difficult due to the lack of the said practicum and connections.

I agree with the note on English language requirement. Had I had the money to do an international program after finishing my Thai high school, I would have chosen Mahidol University International College as the first and possibly the only choice. The kids at MUIC that I have known were and still are really, really hard-working, and those that were not got weeded out to Bangkok U/ Assumption and would do pretty well there. At Kasetsart, some professors at my department were brilliant at speaking English and could deliver instructions very well in the language, but this might not apply to all of them, particularly in critical subjects.

Just sharing my experience.

By the way, I did a Master's degree here as well, at Mahidol, and the course was international. Most of the Thai instructors were okay, the one teaching biostatistics and helminthology were great. I work at a uni in the South and the instructions in the international program was very effective. Alumnis go on to work at WHO, or do post-doc at Johns Hopkins.

However, not one cares to do a program like this one anyways, right? It must be so. The program accepts 20 students each year and 12 people applied!!

I feel that I am sharing the point of view that differs a bit from other places, though. This level of rigor probably does not apply at all Thai universities. A friend of mine who graduated from another govt. uni. got a job as a TA at a Rajamangala University and was lecturing in freshman year biology / botany lab. He wrote the species name in English and was asked by the kids to write the spelling in Thai text!! Yes, the gaps are that wide. That wide. Most kids who go for graduate degree at government universities are usually from government universities or Rangsit. I hardly see ABAC kids doing postgrad degree in the sciences, at least not at Mahidol/Kaset/Chula. Not to say that kids from other schools are not brilliant. The best analyst at my unit graduated from a Rajabhat in southern Thailand and can do math far beyond normal human beings.

"Fourth, Thailand now has many attractive campuses such as those of universities such as Assumption"

I like the way how they mentioned attractive campuses only, nothing about the quality of the education.

Assumption is renowned for spending a fortune on their campus and the image of the university, but they do nothing to attract quality international lecturers, in fact Ramkamheang University has a far superior international faculty, and yet they charge a fraction of the price ABAC does, too bad in Thailand image is everything.

The majority of their "international" staff at ABAC are from Burma or India and 95% speak broken English .

What little American instructors they do have are mainly American students on a work and travel program teaching basic English.

The ABAC English Debate team could nail all others any day of the week, plus twice on Sundays. However, this does not apply to dime-a-dozen-Mercedes ABAC kids that I have met while working during school breaks. Most of them are fine, but some were not speaking English that matches the tuition price.

Let's keep the topic civil and on-topic. Without arguing the politics. Government officials--including teachers, have been targeted in the past by insurgents.

Whether this would include foreign teachers, I don't know. Whether this only applies to gov't schools, I don't know.

It might be good to know how safe the cities are and if most of these attacks take place in remote/rural areas.

The response here is based on my own perception and experience, thus the validity may be very limited.

Normally, government school teachers get SHOT. Private (i.e. religious) school teachers DISAPPEAR.

Reports of foreigners being attacked in the Deep South are very rare, and most of the foreign victims seemed to be Malaysians who came to Betong or other border towns for holidays.

With regard to the locations, there is a report here by the Violence-Related Injury Surveillance System (VIS, accessed at http://www.deepsouthvis.org/), hosted by the Epidemiology Unit at Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, for the month of April 2011.

http://medipe2.psu.ac.th/~vis/report/VIS_Report_Apr11.pdf

From time to time, the "hot spot" for the violence would shift from one province to another. Right now it seems like Pattani's hot. Nong Chik, a district in which the Hat Yai - Pattani highway passes through, seems to have the highest number of incidents.

A three-year report can be found here (for 2007-2009), but the map is a bit messy.

http://medipe2.psu.ac.th/~vis/report/VIS_Report_Jan07_Dec09.pdf

Too bad that the reports are all in Thai, though. Hope the posters here who are not proficient in Thai can find some help in cracking the table and map headings.

Hope this helps.

Well, I'm not to comment on WHY the teachers are being killed (as no one has ever claimed responsibility for the killing), but if I may, I would like to put things in a comparative perspective. If you look at the number presented by Deep South Watch, a local think-tank, as found here:

http://www.deepsouthwatch.org/node/730

Under section "3. Dynamics of the Target of Violence", there is a graph which shows how many teachers were wounded or killed from 2004-2010. Teachers make up around 1% of the casualties. Not to say that this is not a cause for concern, though.

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As for myself, when I told my family that I would be working in the 3 provinces, my parents just said no, but Hat Yai / Songkhla would be okay. So I'm based mainly in Hat Yai but I commute or stay a few nights in Pattani from time to time.

Well, I'm a Thai Buddhist from Bangkok, but I've worked in Songkhla and Pattani alternatively for about two years, with occasional visits to the other provinces in the deep south. I'm on a stint outside the area at the moment but I'll be back there in a bit.

I've met and worked with several Westerners, all of whom have been staying happily in the area for more than 10 years, many of whom have children living in the area. I didn't meet any Westerner in Yala, though, but my visits to the provincial town were all very brief.

I very much agree with vont on most of his responses, particularly on the fact that if you regard yourself as more important than the have-not, then don't go. All of the foreigners I mentioned have maintained themselves in a very humble and discreet manner and they integrate very, very well with the Thais, Chinese, and Malays there. While the violence is a bit over-rated (as you may have observed during your holidays there), the poverty there is real. It would probably be in the best interest of everyone not to exacerbate the marginalization-based resentment of the majority of the locals.

BTW, no, you're not nuts, but others (Thais and foreigners alike) may and probably will think that you are. They do so in my case :-P