richard10365

Obviously if he thinks there will be free flow of labor in 2015 then he hasn't read the AEC Blueprint or the ASEAN Framework Agreement in the Trade in Services (AFAS) with associated schedules to see what Thailand has agreed to. None of the ASEAN countries agreed to let labor move freely as if there are no borders. The only thing free in this story is the imagination of the writer.

Good job NSA.

Thank you Mr. Snowden for pointing this out. Good to know the US government is doing their job.

By the way Mr. Snowden, there is a room waiting for you at the ADX Florence high security prison in Colorado. We hope you enjoy your stay for the rest of your life.

You obviously have a problem with someone who wants to tell the world the truth that we should have been told by our elected representatives. You thank hime for this and condemn him for other news. Why is that?

I believe nations, especially the size of the USA, need their secrets and techniques to ensure security of its citizens. Even though we have elected representatives, not all of them need a blank check to know our nations secrets. The standards of a security clearance would probably fail more than half of them.

People cannot have effective security and privacy. Mr. Snowden brought an issue that might need discussion but not for the reasons most people think. In a sense, he has legitimized cyber espionage as a legal tool of the state a thus did the US a favor. At the same time, he has betrayed his oath which he no doubt had to sign an agreement to keep American secrets and for that he has ended any change of freedom for the rest of his life.

I believe most, if not all, of the MBA programs are accredited by the Ministry of Education in Thailand. To study for a PhD after your MBA, the government institution that regulates education in the country where the university is located, must accredit the program.

Webster (www.webster.edu) is a university from the United States that has a campus here in Thailand. They are the only school in Thailand (afaik) that are authorized to distribute FASFA (US Financial Aid) to Americans studying in its Thai campus.

I studied the MBA at Payap University in Chiang Mai and the experience has helped me to develop an opinion about what a good program has or doesn't have.

(1) Entrance requirements need to be high.

[A] TOEFL 550-600, IELTS 5.5-6.0. Poor English speakers mixed in with excellent English speakers brings the quality of the class down. Poor English speakers will not read case studies or required text and always slow the class down with questions self study with a text book would have answered. The most competitive non-native English speakers score TOEFL 600+ or IELTS 6.0. These students make excellent team members when working on required group projects.

GMAT or equivalent should be required for entrance but I am not sure of what a competitive score for this would be since the program I enrolled in didn't require it. The math part would have definitely been a challenge for me but would have been a great skill to have prior to starting this program. Students with strong math skills had less difficulty with some of the more math intensive programs such as Managerial Economics and Financial Management.

[C] GPA of undergrad degree program need to be at least 3.0. Anything less than this lets in students who would possibly be dead weight to the class as their academically challenged skills limit the pace of the class.

[D] Programs that allow students with no academic business background need to have a solid foundation program to teach the basics to business beginners. The foundation program should run prior to the 1st class of the 1st semester. Any foundation programs running concurrently with the MBA program risks slowing the pace of the class as the business beginners ask many questions due to their lack of an academic business background.

(2) Academic research needs to be a strength of the university/program

[A] Does the MBA program detail current research on its website? Are the MBA instructors doing any active research? On the instructor's biography, is their research listed?

Are you able to access the students Independent Study/Theses on their website? This is an invaluable resource to help educate novice academic writers on how to properly write an Independent Study or Thesis paper. It is no replacement for a proper format made available to the student.

[C] Is there a standard format in English given to students for Independent Study/Theses? The lack of clear instructions on what an academic paper is and how its structured causes a lot of headaches for graduate students trying to complete the requirements for their MBA.

[D] Are there any instructors with the academic rank of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor or Professor who are teaching in the MBA program? Instructors are awarded this rank because they have done recognized research and would know how to advise students on how to write their academic papers.

(3) There needs to be full time MBA faculty employed by the MBA program you are studying in?

[A] Universities that rely on visiting instructors to teach their courses do not have instructors on hand to assist MBA students outside of the classroom who are struggling with complex business concepts and theories.

This also complicates the academic research part of the MBA program during the Independent Study/Thesis part of the course. It is difficult to find an instructor to be an advisory to help guide you in constructing your paper. What is left is very poor quality service and failures during proposals and defenses.

Final Notes

One other thing that is a pet peeve of mine is when text books are not used in the classroom. Unless an instructor has their name on the outside of a university textbook, they should be using a textbook that has someone else name. In my opinion, if the instructor doesn't use a textbook, it really lowers the quality of the class as not ever concept can be learned in the classroom. Most every instructor I've had that didn't have a textbook totally disagrees with me. Some used chapters from their favorite textbooks to teach and did a good job explaining those chapters while others thought 100+ text filled slides accomplished the same thing. I wasn't happy in those classes.

With all that said, NIDA does look pretty good on their website. Their website did impress me especially their association with the Wharton University. Their entrance requirements are high and they have flexible study options during the week or weekends. The cost is a little high for two years but it seems with the higher quality comes higher cost.

Assumption is another university I like for their MBA program. The dean of their MBA program actually was a visiting professor at Payap and taught Financial Management. It was one of the most amazing finance classes I ever had and made me want to study finance more. However, he only came to Payap on the weekend to teach our classes.

Mahidol has much of what I list in 1, 2, & 3 above. They have many instructors with academic rank as well as listed their research online. They don't; however, offer a MBA but rather a Masters in Management.

Finally, while I do think I got an excellent education at Payap, I would not recommend it for the MBA program for the reasons I listed above. I got an excellent education because I wanted it and studied hard despite of the unnecessary hurdles I faced in the classroom.

Good luck with your decision. Choose wisely because 2 years is a long time to spend in a weak program.

So does anyone have an insights as to whether the Thai government wants to remedy this?

I'm sure the more ambitious and forward thinking Thai students place great value in international exposure, see the situation as a serious problem, and would love to have it fixed.

I'm sure the Thai government takes the opposite view on all of the above.

I agree with you Bruce as well as 150,000 ambitious and forward thinking Thai students as the report pointed out. They too are studying in the same international programs as the 16,000+ international students.

Let's not forget the ASEAN strategy for mobility of ASEAN Tourism Professionals kicks off next year. While the tourism organizations and industry will benefit from this, the Thai Tourism Professionals will not.

August 4th is the start date for Payap University in Chiang Mai.

I was toying with applying to Payap or any other similar CM uni to do the business management degree. I need to get a new passport as the current one is full. I won't arrive back into CM until August 2nd and I read that there is a three week lead time for international students to get the necessary approvals.

Can I do that and start the course late?

Or is there another CM uni that I can start in September?

You can apply now. Pay the 6,400 baht deposit and Payap should issue you visa and acceptance letters which are needed when applying for you education visa. Payap can email you these letters.

Technically, someone working, with a work permit and visa can study; however, a student with an education visa can not work.

Even student internships done by international students in Thailand is frowned up by the Ministry of Labor. Although, the Ministry of Labor often ignore this because the Thailand Ministry of Education often dictate internships be included in undergraduate degree programs. It's also a free source of labor for Thai businesses since interns in Thailand don't normally get paid.

I would say go to Walen. They can probably create a class for whatever your Thai abilities are.

Is it any wonder that the university grads are so sadly lacking, one only needs to look at the quality of the grade & high school education programs!!!!!

I think the difference between an international program and a Thai program is international university teachers fail their students if they don't pass their classes. The ones that do finish and have decent GPA's are quite capable graduates.

About accreditation, for a degree in any country to be valid, it must be approved by the government body that regulates education in the country where the institution of higher education is located. For Thailand, the Ministry of Education accredits all degree producing programs.

Harvard University recognized a degree from Payap University as meeting the prerequisite of having a bachelor's degree to study for a master's program. The London School of Economics also accepted a Payap degree. Two different countries and two very well respected institutions of higher education have accepted a bachelor's degree from a small university in northern Thailand.

If that's not enough, there are 30 universities in Thailand that are approved by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The US government has approved the use of the GI Bill (earned by US military veterans) in institutions located outside the United States here in Thailand.

So in reality, it's not about accreditation at all. It's not an issue because most universities in Thailand are accredited in one way or another that is internationally accepted around the world by the most respected international institutions. It is, however, about image. Institutions of Higher Education in Thailand have an image problem that needs to be addressed along side the educational improvements many Thai universities have already started on. There is still plenty of room for improvement but at least the improvements have started.

I have a couple of perspectives some might not have considered.

The original article mentions a publication as the source of the data. That source says almost 96% of the international students come from countries that are not in the west. Therefore, most international students studying in Thailand are Asian.

Also, with many top western companies actually all over Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia, there is a good bet their source of labor also is Asian. With the Free Trade Area created by ASEAN, students from ASEAN countries don't necessarily have to graduate from any particular ASEAN country to be hired in the other ASEAN countries by these top western companies.

One more interesting note worth pointing out, 2 of the graduates from the International Business Management bachelor's degree program at Payap University just got accepted to some very nice universities in the west. This makes me feel like Thai degrees are recognized and respected as legitimate degrees just as much as any school in the United States. One of the girls is going to Harvard University and the other girl is going to the London School of Economics.

Also, many of the western students are working full time in their country after graduating from Payap. I'm sure this is true for Assumption which has more than 2,600 international students studying along side 16,000 Thai students in these same international programs.

There are many stereotypes about Thai universities and many of them are justified; however, many of the international programs are adopting western standards and those stereotypes don't apply anymore to these schools.

I think the Burmese workers started the rumor. haha...kidding

Immigration is a science that if properly executed, labor shortages can be properly managed.

About the 3rd category (former Burmese citizens) and 4th category (also Burmese citizens), I believe it is referring to Burmese citizens (as is mentioned in the opening post) who in the past may have been blacklisted from entering the country for "whatever reason" and have made a life for themselves abroad. What's seems odd to me is they refer to them as Burmese citizens but are included as a category which need to apply for permanent residency. Burmese citizens should not have to apply permanent residency. Are they now 2nd class Burmese citizens? Why would anyone come back to Burma if they are automatically going to be discriminated against?

Perhaps the announcement might read better if it said people of ethnic Burmese decent who are now citizens of another country and who wish to return....etc.

Either way, I think this is good for Burma (Myanmar) and wish them the best of luck.

I love the Dukes...all of them...Ragu too!

No effect. It started out really good but then they let CNN back on the air. Now we're back to crap news stories again.

I think Snowden should be in jail for the rest of his life. He is a traitor who released secret information during a time of war. If he doesn't get executed, he will be very lucky.

I don't think supporting a child is an option for a visa in Thailand. I could be wrong though. Some of the other TV folks might know.

Do you guys even know how much Microsoft Office even cost? If you knew, maybe you would buy it too. If you only use MS Office occasionally, then maybe the pirated version is better. However, if your entire existence depends on it, the paid version is noticeably better.

Yes, here are the latest prices from that other outfit we all use, but still love to hate:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Microsoft%20Office

Expensive for what you get, especially considering that the excellent Libre Office, and Open Office are FREE, and contain all the essential features, including the ability to create documents in PDF. It all started when the head guy at Sun Microsystems (R.I.P.) decided to stick it to MS and put out a full featured Office program free to the world. he should have gotten a Nobel Prize for doing that. Instead, he got a hostile takeover.

I never asked for it, but the three laptops I have purchased in Thailand all came pre-loaded with bootleg MS Office. (Full Photoshop, too!) However, I have always used and preferred to use Open/Libre Office.

That is one price. Another price for university students is 79.99 or $1.67 a month for 4 years. Compared to how much MS Office use to cost, this is really cheap.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/university/

And Open Office can be used on a mac or pc and it is free.

Comparing open office to MS Office is like comparing an Indian made Tata car to a German made BMW. If you're only going to drive your car to the corner store then the Tata might be ok. But if you really need to do some serious driving then the BMW is probably the better choice.

You are right though, it is free. Free is definitely cheaper than $1.67 a month. Tatas to BMWs or Open Office to Microsoft Office..to each his own. Microsoft has definitely introduced a competitive pricing model that will sway some to actually purchase a subscription plan MS Office 365. With billions of computers running pirated or actual programs, that small number of pirated MS Office users that might switch because of this could mean billions in revenue for Microsoft. Now office can run on I-Pads, Macs, Surface tablets and PCs.

Microsoft is back!

Do you guys even know how much Microsoft Office even cost? If you knew, maybe you would buy it too. If you only use MS Office occasionally, then maybe the pirated version is better. However, if your entire existence depends on it, the paid version is noticeably better.

The new Microsoft Office 365 for university students only cost 54.16 baht ($1.67) a month for 4 years. It can be used on a PC or a Mac.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/university/

Do you guys even know how much Microsoft Office even cost? If you knew, maybe you would buy it too. If you only use MS Office occasionally, then maybe the pirated version is better. However, if your entire existence depends on it, the paid version is noticeably better.

Thank you Scott!

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