UK most popular educational destination for Thai students, says British Council, points out Thai teachers are poor in English

[snoop1130]

UK most popular educational destination for Thai students, says British Council, points out Thai teachers are poor in English

By The Nation

 

 

The United Kingdom is the number one destination for Thai higher education students, representing 6,785 or 43 per cent of the total Thai students choosing to study abroad, with the top five subjects being business and management, engineering and technology, social studies, law, and creative arts and design, the British Council said today (February 4).

 

The United States follows closely behind with 37 per cent, Australia 16 per cent and Canada 4 per cent. The number of postgraduate qualifications obtained the highest reach at 68 per cent, followed by undergraduate at 31 per cent.

 

The top five subjects Thai students choose to study in the UK are business and management at 41 per cent, engineering and technology 11.5 per cent, social studies 7 per cent, law 6.4 per cent, and creative arts and design 5 per cent, the council added.

 

“The British Council is an international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunity,” said director Andrew Glass OBE. “By the end of 2020, two billion people are expected to be using or learning to use English. Our mission in 2020 is stronger than ever. We will continue to bring people together to change the world for the better and deepen relations between the UK and Thailand through our work in English, higher education and science, and creative industries. 

 

“According to the report 'Asean Youth Technology, Skills and the Future of Work' from the World Economic Forum, Asean youth see language skills as one of the most valuable for the future. The challenges we face with English learning in Thailand mainly derive from inequality in education, teaching methodology, and assessment,” he said.

 

“From our experience, the challenges we face with English in Thailand can be divided into four areas: inequality, insufficient levels of English among teachers, teaching methodology, and testing and assessment. Digital disruption also changes the way people learn English. In 2020, the British Council is providing an end-to-end solution for teaching and testing English to support the needs of students and respond to digital changes. 

 

“We are also introducing a new product for English learners in partnership with Academy Award-winning Aardman animation studios – Learning Time with Timmy – to Thailand. This innovative learning experience includes courses, apps, and a video series to help children aged from four to six learn English through play-based methodology. Using simple words, young learners will develop their English skills in a natural way, building strong fundamental skills in preparation to become global citizens,” Glass added.

 

The British Council continues to promote UK education through the Study UK Fair and launch of the GREAT scholarships and IELTS prize. Helped by the introduction of the New Graduate Route by the UK government, the UK aims to welcome 600,000 international students globally by 2030.

 

“There are more than 300,000 people in the crafts sector in Thailand. If we could bridge the skill gaps and change the perception of the craft sector in Thailand, this would not only help to drive the Thai economy but also sustain local wisdom and heritage,” he said.

 

“The British Council has been working with more than 3,000 crafts entrepreneurs and over 200 brands to enhance their design and social entrepreneurial skills. Building on this success, we will support a growing network of craft communities by strengthening social entrepreneurial skills and promoting the role of hubs and cities through creative economy partnerships,” Glass said.

 

“Today, the role of the university has changed from lectures in classrooms to becoming the forefront of research and innovation. The government has underlined the importance of collaboration and priorities with BCG; the bio-economy, circular economy, and green economy. There is a strong need for universities to reinvent themselves and reskill the Thai markets amidst the disruption in technology and growing global competition. 

 

“In the last three to four years, the British Council has enabled 55 research collaborations and academic partnerships. The majority of research collaborations are in the areas of medical engineering, biological science, food and agriculture, and energy and engineering. In 2020, we aim to continue to internationalise higher education and science by enabling collaboration between universities and industry, developing research ecosystems and making science more accessible among the public through projects such as FameLab and Researcher Connect,” Glass added.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/edandtech/30381591

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-02-04

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[RotBenz8888]

14 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

points out Thai teachers are poor in English

Poor? Do they really deserve that much credit?

[pixelaoffy]

Tell us something we don't know here in the Thailand education system 

[observer90210]

Very true, the UK is a Thai favorite. This little hottie's too.

[anterian]

Just out of curiosity I looked at some of the '' Learning Time with Timmy'' videos. I was very unimpressed.

[Mister Fixit]

1 hour ago, observer90210 said:

Very true, the UK is a Thai favorite. This little hottie's too.

Strange you should say that, considering her ‘degree’ in English is from Kentucky.

Hottie she may be, but have you seen the state of her lower teeth?

Or hear her try to speak English?  

[Yadon Toploy]

25 minutes ago, Mister Fixit said:

Strange you should say that, considering her ‘degree’ in English is from Kentucky.

Hottie she may be, but have you seen the state of her lower teeth?

Or hear her try to speak English?  

Still, she puts this current PM to shame in many aspects, including English language ability.

 

Mocking her teeth? Is this a primary school playground?

[South]

3 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Very true, the UK is a Thai favorite. This little hottie's too.

Always had the hots for her ????

 

[thisisrascal]

Well this is timely, a friend of mine attends a university here in Bangkok and I was reading her textbooks and interactive mock examinations yesterday. I have to say that I was not impressed and was quite taken aback by the poor quality instruction it appeared that she was receiving. I literally went through it all and told her - in a kind way of course - that it was a load of poo.   

[Emdog]

"The United Kingdom is the number one destination for Thai higher education students..."

Amazing. Does this mean Thai universities have fewer students than unis in UK?

Or maybe they  decided Thai universities don't provide higher education?

[Assurancetourix]

Nowhere in the news can I read why Great Britain rather than the USA.
I may be wrong but it seems to me that higher education is much more expensive in the USA than in the UK;
moreover maybe the USA is also more severe than the UK for obtaining the student visa.
As for Australia .. I don't want to put my Australian friends on the back , but their accent makes me wonder if sometimes I'm not chatting with an alien;
you will answer me with reason that mine should not be the best either, but I am not "native english".

[RotBenz8888]

10 hours ago, anterian said:

Just out of curiosity I looked at some of the '' Learning Time with Timmy'' videos. I was very unimpressed.

Still, if you let the kids watch youtube while the teacher shut up and play on her smartphone would probably be an improvement.

[zydeco]

18 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

Nowhere in the news can I read why Great Britain rather than the USA.
I may be wrong but it seems to me that higher education is much more expensive in the USA than in the UK;
moreover maybe the USA is also more severe than the UK for obtaining the student visa.
As for Australia .. I don't want to put my Australian friends on the back , but their accent makes me wonder if sometimes I'm not chatting with an alien;
you will answer me with reason that mine should not be the best either, but I am not "native english".

The UK is running several scam deals. One of the most lucrative is to offer dual degree programs, which require Thai students to pay tuition to a UK university over three years while they are still attending their Thai university. The students need only attend their UK university for a semester to "complete" their studies. This is what the Northumbria sales rep tried to pass off on students at Mahidol, for example, a few years ago. Wolverhampton has a similar, perhaps worse, scam going. These two, of course, were rebranded as "universities" in the 1990s, and apparently they are still desperate for funds.

[Assurancetourix]

10 minutes ago, zydeco said:

The UK is running several scam deals.

You seem to confuse the country (UK) with private law universities that do what they want when it comes to recovering money.
It is also, to read to you, something that seems to please the wealthy parents of these Thai students.
Fortunately there are still many universities which do not practice these dubious methods;
and curiously the Thai students cannot enter in these Uni  because their level in English and general culture is notoriously insufficient.

 

I remain persuaded that the diplomas of the Universities which you quote are worth as much as the price of the kilo of paper on which they are printed;
that is to say peanuts.
And recruiters in large international companies know this.

[zydeco]

2 minutes ago, Assurancetourix said:

It is also, to read to you, something that seems to please the wealthy parents of these Thai students.

Well, of course it does. It's all about a credential from the UK. They wouldn't care if it came from Little Lord Fauntleroy's School of Fashion Design and Creative Arts. And it's easy. Not only that, but when Thai and other Asian students go to British universities, they are put into segregated programs. I remember hearing how my Thai students were anticipating meeting British and other Europeans in their classes, only to find they were filled with Thais and other Asians. But it wasn't all bad for them. They got to spend most of their time sightseeing and shopping and taking selfies to post to FB.

[beavenlen]

The major problem with Thai education. is  that there are too many europeans and colonials trying to teach a language they themselves cannot speak or understand. Americans who teach their brand of colonial English. as an example.

[hotchilli]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thai students choosing to study abroad, with the top five subjects being business and management, engineering and technology, social studies, law, and creative arts and design

Everything that they can't get here to any great standard!

[NicoBKK]

Thai English teachers are in my view definitely better vs Italian English teachers

[Cereal]

How can any sane person expect a Thai to be able to properly teach English? Native speakers from select countries are what is needed to teach a language. I do not consider Aussies, Kiwis, or Saffers to be native English speakers at a level to be able to teach English. I know that is controversial, but too bad. Their accents are horrible to listen to for Canadians and Americans, let alone Thai or Lao students.

[BobbyL]

5 hours ago, zydeco said:

Not only that, but when Thai and other Asian students go to British universities, they are put into segregated programs. I remember hearing how my Thai students were anticipating meeting British and other Europeans in their classes, only to find they were filled with Thais and other Asians. But it wasn't all bad for them. They got to spend most of their time sightseeing and shopping and taking selfies to post to FB.

That is completely untrue. Not what my wife or any of her international student friends experienced in England. 

[Borzandy]

23 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

points out Thai teachers are poor in English

But but I heard Thai teachers, English teachers same same same......

[Hackney35]

15 hours ago, BobbyL said:

That is completely untrue. Not what my wife or any of her international student friends experienced in England. 

Agreed this isn’t true. I had loads of Chinese on my degree (15 years ago granted!) and I had the unfortunate experience of having to do group projects with them... some of them could barely speak any English and I went to a top20 university in the U.K.

They live in segregated accommodation for ‘overseas students’ in halls of residence though and overall didn’t mix too much with British students on campus.

[Hackney35]

15 hours ago, Cereal said:

How can any sane person expect a Thai to be able to properly teach English? Native speakers from select countries are what is needed to teach a language. I do not consider Aussies, Kiwis, or Saffers to be native English speakers at a level to be able to teach English. I know that is controversial, but too bad. Their accents are horrible to listen to for Canadians and Americans, let alone Thai or Lao students.

I’m no history expert but surely Aussies and kiwis are as native at speaking english as Americans? You are all ultimately descendants from British/European immigrants.

I personally find some American accents more horrible than say a well educated Kiwi. 

So yeah your post comes across as somewhat arrogant.

Some saffas aren’t native speakers because Afrikaans is their first language but the English saffas are. Quite a big difference again. 

[JAG]

20 hours ago, beavenlen said:

The major problem with Thai education. is  that there are too many europeans and colonials trying to teach a language they themselves cannot speak or understand. Americans who teach their brand of colonial English. as an example.

Whilst I subscribe to the view that there is no such thing as "American English", (there is English and then there are mistakes); taking my tongue out of my cheek, if you think that the major problem with the Thai education system is too many Europeans and "colonials" you obviously know very little about it.

 

Whilst there are some who are hired for a "white skin", or are from other non native epeaking countries, many are supplied (on the cheap) by agencies and circumvent the rules in that way; they are far outweighed by the numbers of Thai teachers teaching English who simply cannot speak the language but only parrot a textbook. That is true in many other subjects as well.

[Somtamnication]

Until the no-fail policies endure, this will always be the case.

[BobbyL]

1 hour ago, Hackney35 said:

Agreed this isn’t true. I had loads of Chinese on my degree (15 years ago granted!) and I had the unfortunate experience of having to do group projects with them... some of them could barely speak any English and I went to a top20 university in the U.K.

They live in segregated accommodation for ‘overseas students’ in halls of residence though and overall didn’t mix too much with British students on campus.

That is very true and exactly what my wife said. She had quite a few Chinese on her MSc who like you said, were not the best at English, and definitely kept themselves to themselves. 

[lamyai3]

On 2/4/2020 at 10:11 PM, Mister Fixit said:

Hottie she may be, but have you seen the state of her lower teeth?

Or hear her try to speak English?  

Wonky on both counts. 

[lamyai3]

18 hours ago, Cereal said:

How can any sane person expect a Thai to be able to properly teach English? Native speakers from select countries are what is needed to teach a language. I do not consider Aussies, Kiwis, or Saffers to be native English speakers at a level to be able to teach English. I know that is controversial, but too bad.

Their accents are horrible to listen to for Canadians and Americans, let alone Thai or Lao students.

Where do you stand on Scousers, Brummies, Geordies and Jocks, Cockneys, Mockneys and Wurzels? 

[RubbaJohnny]

Rather hard to take the article seriously 100% in just 4 named nations UK USA Oz and Canada.

 

I personally know this is untrue Thai students in New Zealand , Malaysia Denmark etc

The government which surely didn't lie told us there are students in China etc, though I imagine that will be less ppular for a while.

"

The latest estimates have it that about 27,000 Thai students study abroad each year. The US remains the top destination but its population of Thai students has consistently declined over the past 15 years, from a high of 15,090 in 1997/98 to 7,341 in 2013/14.

Other host countries, however, have attracted greater numbers and today other leading destinations for Thai students (after the US) include the UK, Australia, Japan, and Malaysia."

 

https://monitor.icef.com/2015/08/from-the-field-recruiting-in-thailand/

[wotsdermatter]

8 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Until the no-fail policies endure

Is there a slight problem within this section of your sentence?  Possible it should read, "Until the no-fail policies fail, or are removed..."

 

Contradictory to numerous comments, I have met and know a lot of Thais who speak English better than a lot of the so-called native English speaking "teachers" who often have no other qualification(s) than they have a degree and are "native " speakers of English.  With regard to the issue of accents and dialects, etc., take somebody from one part of England and drop that person into a part of the country they are not familiar with and see how they fare using the language, often shabbily.

'nuf sed.

Edited February 6, 2020 by wotsdermatter
added info