Topic About Webster University In Cha Am

[PeaceBlondie]

It should be possible on an internet forum to have a reasonable discussion of the pros and cons of a place like Webster University, in Cha Am, Thailand. The last two attempts on ThaiVisa, and perhaps elsewhere, crashed and burned.

So, let's try it again, please. Thank you.

Edited November 2, 2007 by PeaceBlondie
To correct location closer to Cha Am (in between, actually)

[TopDogger]

why.. what happened?

[PeaceBlondie]

Both in the teaching forum recently, and last night in the Hua Hin=ChaAm forum, someone posted blogs or links that were derogatory to the university, and one of those links made my computer go berserk. Webster needn't be pummelled to death on ThaiVisa.

[Ijustwannateach]

I'd also like to point out that spamming links, etc., will be just as strictly dealt with in this subforum as it was in the Teachers' subforum- more so if the offenders are the same.

[english_farang_lady]

Pros-- The school (Webster's Thailand fiasco) is in the process of going out of business.

Cons- This place is a real turkey and it is not happening fast enough.

Websters University in Hua Hin is a real asset, to Thailand and to the area. I think it is rather sad that people do not get behind it, preferring instead to criticize anonymously.

The new Rector is going to great efforts to improve Websters, and has already instigated many innovative ideas. He has also dramatically improved morale, both in the faculty and in the students.

Offering students the opportunity to study at ANY Websters campus worldwide, (after an initial period in Hua Hin), the concept of Websters is simply brilliant. Students may transfer to Geneva, Leiden (Netherlands), London (UK), or any other campus, since the syllabuses (syllabi?) run concurrently.

For parents who are struggling to provide their kids with a University education on a tight budget, Websters is a godsend.

I am the parent of a student at this University.

[BigA]

Hi PeaceBlondie,

I believe I can be fairly objective regarding this much maligned school.

One of the good things about Webster at least at the global level is the system, the predominance of the 8 or 9 week term. This has historically (In 1988 when I first attended, and as it still holds true for me today) been a distinctive competency/comparative/competitive advantage for this school.

Compare this to say the University of Missouri where I pursued undergraduate and graduate studies, they offer a 16 week term which is a substantially longer time committment.

Costs to attend the Thailand operation:

I dissagree with the poster immediately above, hopefully, she will not suffer buyers remorse like so many of the other Webster Thailand customers have (not me though, I have a good job and I figure my Webster degrees referencing St Louis helped me somehow to get my foot in the door).

I always considered Webster as a whole to be rather expensive and not for people on a tight budget.

In Thailand, if you can handle your own visa and as a foreigner twist the right arms you can attend at the local Thai rate which is discounted by about 1/3 rd.

Full price tuition not including any extras is in the neighborhood of 1500 + USD per 3 credit hour class.

[english_farang_lady]

For students who are not American, and who wish to follow the American system, with a view to working/living in the USA, Websters is a fantastic option. And one which I believe should be nurtured by those from the Hua Hin area. Other campuses are in Geneva, Leiden, London and many more.

Students can study at any of the other worldwide campuses after an initial period in Thailand. The eventual certificate is issued by the St.Louis campus. Thus to employers, it appears that the student studied in the USA and not in Thailand. This must be a huge advantage for many folks with similar ambitions.

Another big plus from our point of view is that the class sizes are small, and the qualifications of the faculty are high. This means a more than average amount of time spent with each individual. Another huge bonus.

Another bonus, is that the students are from mixed backgrounds, providing a truly cosmopolitan atmosphere. This can only be beneficial, particularly to those wishing to follow a career dealing with world issues.

The faculty are also very cosmopolitan and worldly, bringing to Websters a true mix of personalities, life-styles, education experience and perspective.

I for one believe the Websters system of education is a winning combination.

[SHDWFX]

Some of the comments above reflect zero knowledge about Webster. The school has had various problems in the past few years and currently is right at the edge of viability in terms of student numbers. That said, Webster is a wonderful place for students. With class sizes usually less than 10, they get personal attention from from the faculty in an intimate campus environment with students from over 25 countries. From Webster's US accredidation the students can go anywhere and transfer their credits. Try that with Stamford! Webster now has excellent leadership and the prospects for growth are excellent. Webster is expensive compared to Thai schools (or, say, Stamford) buy it is still less than half the price of tuition at a mid-range school in the US. Webster will never compete with the first-rank schools in the US, UK or Aust., but Webster does an excellent alternative for some students and their families, whther they are looking for a 4-year degree or as a stepping stone to continued study overseas.

Full disclosure: I teach at Webster.

[Chingatchgook]

In reasonable deference to the school I have heard that some grads have gone on to good positions but there is extreme discourse within the Vietnamese community for instance, at one time the largest ethnicity, which now this school is no longer able to attract.

Why is that? Vietnam, rapidly developing country, noveaux rich, where is that money going? Not to Webster anymore!

I think Webster gets a handfull of study abroads from other campuses who stay in Thailand for a short vacation but that permanent regional recruiting is lacking.

I think that either WUT does not have a winning team or there is no home campus support or both.

Edited October 9, 2007 by Chingatchgook

[think_too_mut]

Not knowing much about the Websters Uni, one thing begs a question: is Hua Hin the location where it should be?

The people who set it up there may have anticipated many foreigners settling in the area would bring the wealth and generate a good demand for quality education.

They may have been facing the fact that many of them (the foreigners) have had seen their kids through Unis and came to Hua Hin to relax with education needs and cost behind them.

Not like Bangkok, Pattaya or Chiang Mai where many still active people settle. And their children with them.

Even Khorat would be a bigger market for a Uni than Hua Hin, IMO.

[SHDWFX]

Some of the comments above reflect zero knowledge about Webster. The school has had various problems in the past few years and currently is right at the edge of viability in terms of student numbers. That said, Webster is a wonderful place for students. With class sizes usually less than 10, they get personal attention from from the faculty in an intimate campus environment with students from over 25 countries. From Webster's US accredidation the students can go anywhere and transfer their credits. Try that with Stamford! Webster now has excellent leadership and the prospects for growth are excellent. Webster is expensive compared to Thai schools (or, say, Stamford) buy it is still less than half the price of tuition at a mid-range school in the US. Webster will never compete with the first-rank schools in the US, UK or Aust., but Webster does an excellent alternative for some students and their families, whther they are looking for a 4-year degree or as a stepping stone to continued study overseas.

Full disclosure: I teach at Webster.

Full Disclosure: Sorry to here that.

Your post sounds like a sales pitch for the school.

Let me tell you something this product, (WUT) does not sell itself.

WUT is a troubled organization.

Talking the talk of success and walking the walk are to entirely different things. The enrollment is far below what needs to be in order to not be a drain financially on the main operation. (last I heard the enrollment was less than 200 students, 188 or something). I would not call the campus experience intimate rather the words 'ghost town' comes to mind.

To be quite honest WUT is a tax write-off for St Louis and supplies a feather in their cap to say they have an international campus in Thailand.

Why would you compare yourself to Stamford anyway??? Is it because the new head of the businenss dept is an Indian subcontinental who happens to be a Stamford refugee?

For those of you who don't know Stamford mgt has recently been running off the farangs and replacing them with Thais.

The dept head position mentioned does not pay very well and the person hired represents a compromise reflecting the economic realities this school faces.

I agree about the transferrable credits deal and the US accreditation being bright spots. The school management, admin and faculty centered approach though is not student or customer friendly however and there many disgruntled folks have been left in its wake.

No disclosure required: I know I'm right!

You apparently have some axe to grind and choose not to disclose it. Fine. Snark away, after all you "know you are right". Webster does have problems, and I am not sure it will survive but I hope it does. Stamford is having even worse trouble. They lost their international affiliation because of poor standards and now are losing their farang students. We have several of them (Europeans) that have transferred over Webster. All of them say Webster is far superior.

[SHDWFX]

Don't know much about Webster's but would like to give advice to any one considering sending offspring to Stamford. Don't waste their time and your money, send them to a proper learning establishment. If anyone is really considering further education in Thailand I am afraid that Bangkok is the only place to get a meaningful degree.

"Meaningful" to whom? Over 50% of Webster's students are non-Thai Asians. They come to Webster specifically for the US-accredited degree. The kids from Nepal or Vietnam (we have quite a few) would rather have the Webster degree than a degree from Chula or Thammasat. Also our European students can much more easily transfer their credits from Webster than from a Thai university. Even some of our Thai students planning to go to grad school in the US came to Webster specifically even though they could have gone to one of the top Thai schools.

If you dont know, as you admit, don't make such a broad generalization. Cheers.

[PeaceBlondie]

Just a gentle reminder to keep on limiting the remarks to personal opinions about the school. Thanks.

[Chingatchgook]

How about a question?

What level of scrutiny can afforded to exercise quality control and screen the background and qualifications on the people hired to work at this place?

Probably some management shortcut where people are assumed to be OK based on some subjective criteria and not anything even remotely defensible if the school should happen to get sued.

[jayhech]

We're talking about a university here, even though the number of students is relatively small but the business in itself is big and to manage an international university anywhere in the world, I am guessing it requires a whole lot of words more than this forum can take, actually. IMHO.

I spent 1.5 years there. Joined in Spring 2002 and finished in Summer 2003. Master of Arts in Media Communications. BL was head of Media Department (sorry can't give out full name even though I'm tempted because he's one of the greatest lecturers we had). During 1.5 years there, 3 rectors were appointed, one at a time of course. It's quite unusual though for a university to use that many rectors in such short period of time. It's probably difficult to manage WUT. I really don't know the hidden stories. Limited budget for everything--management, PR, school facilities, WUT is a daughter of St.Louis' mia noi, etc. I really don't know.

Where should I start? Do you really have time to really read all this? Just joking. Feel free to read it, or feel free to scroll right pass through.

Somebody asked if WUT should be in HH at all, first of all, it's in Cha-Am. And, yes, IMHO WUT should actually be right on the beach, HH pristine beach. That would make it that great, that perfect, for students and lecturers and all the staff. In reality, beach land is way too expensive for such cheap international education, to be honest. Mind you, great location can do a great deal to physical and mental health when you are in such stressful situations if you still remember how it feels when you attend university. Just think of University of Hawaii at Manoa...everyone looks so beautiful, fit and tanned

Right, so it's not on the beach but somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Buses aren't great, toting along giant pot-hole road (which tambon is it??? where the road money goes???? I won't name it.), sometimes come to a halt because of cow shepherding (many students are late for class because cows just wanna cross the road), but international and study abroad students, who don't own a car or a motorcycle, are thankful for the service provided.

Everything's rather small if you don't consider 2 classroom buildings, 1 office building, 1 unused huge lecture hall, vast, endless land of green grasses, trees, football fields (this you make your own football field since there's none officially), a tennis court (or two?? I can't remember anymore it's been a long time I set foot in the campus), outdoor basketball court, indoor basketball court, manual equipment gym (what do you expect, the fees are darn cheap), a friendly size canteen, a big library with a relatively small numbers of books (sad but true), a leisure room (can't really remember what they actually call it but it has a tv set with UBC you can watch things on the telly while waiting for classes or your friends, a great way to boil up and kill your brain cells, oops...to relax, actually), and more, I can't really name everything there, can I? Last time I was there must be late last year.

Okay..Pros and Cons. I started to be lost myself. Better not drag this too long.

Pros:

1. Small number of students in a class: 10-15 students or even less sometimes. I remember there were just 4 of us in Media Production class. It's great. You can't really chit-chat to your friends otherwise you're doomed. That makes you at least pay attention if you aren't having a reverie by accident

2. Friendly environment. Lots of gossips around but in the end you see faces of those people who gossip about you every day and you gossip about them too so it's a win-win situation. Just joking on this but really, not too many fight except one incident where 2 WUT students beat up a journalist from BKK. That was from a donkey year so let's forget about that. We're usually friendly people if not stirred. Joking again. See, I joke all the time. A sign of a good mood eh?

3. International environment. Thai, American, Canadian, German, English, Swedish, French, Belgian, Napali, Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, Cambodian, Indian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Japanese, to name a few. If I forgot anybody please forgive me. This is a great way to make connections. I didn't know it would be a benefit but to this day I still keep in touch with good ones and that opens many doors and make things easy sometimes.

4. Professional lecturers and staff. I learnt a great deal from books and from the lecturers themselves. They share insights of what they did in the past through lectures they give. A great way to learn different cultures as well. Thai can't bear aggressive people, but to survive in an international environment such as American, for example, you gotta be aggressive to get yourself heard, at least, then to be accepted. My lecturers in Media classes were those who had hands-on experiences before they came to teach at WUT. I felt fortunate at the time, even though the laid-back environment made me just wanna party hehehehe

5. Parties. Yes. It's what we do. Classes for cool people are over on Thursday each week so Thu. night we gather and party away while Barry dj some trance. It was great fun. Try driving through VIP lanes sometimes and you'll see empty bottles of ..... you name it, in front of student houses. Please don't criticize. We just need to relax after a whole week studying very hard, doing research, preparing papers, doing assignments and being in classes

6. No plagiarism. Yes, I wish they would take it easy on this then, but I'm glad they didn't now Do you know how harsh the lecturers appear in front of the class on this subject? They do know how to catch you borrowing or stealing other people's ideas, man! So, yes, to be serious, I've heard students in other universities steal ideas from somewhere without acknowledging the sources. Here we learn how to avoid plagiarising and we're pretty serious about it (actually, I learnt this from an Australian uni in Canberra so the practice wasn't too hard but to many students firstly joined international school such as this American one who sues your arse off on anything, it's quite tough.) However, it did good to us. Not waiting for people to do our jobs, not fearing to initiate something new, not being embarrassed about our ideas and opinion, having our own identity are just a few benefit from this rule.

7. Free BigC trip on Sundays!!!!! I don't know why I am excited when I wrote this but I'm thinking to many students who don't know where to escape to because of limitations of things, I'm sure this is a paradise. Now, I just remember Lotus's right there in HH so maybe this one's no longer offered or exciting. I'm not sure. Gotta check on this.

8. Cheaper tuition fees if compare to studying abroad. No need to explain on this, cost of living is incomparable (in this case I mean tuition fees at WUT compares to universities in the West).

Cons:

1. Course limitation resulted by small numbers of students. When you don't have enough students, you can't really afford to offer many courses in one term. I wanted to take many courses being offered in St.Louis but WUT couldn't offer them here just because there were not enough students to take some courses. However, the courses they offer are those essential ones (main, major courses you need to take in order to complete your degree) and not always a waste of time to take. It's just that I wanted to take something like journalism, something that looked stranger from what the uni offered that would open my eye wider, which wasn't one of the 3 main majors--Media Management, PR, Advertising. Courses were great though, nonetheless, full of discussion which I liked the most.

2. No student clubs or associations. This might be because of, again, small numbers of students. And even though there are not many students in the university, it seems students scatter everywhere. They don't bundle up to do activities. When I was there, there were some students who formed up basketball and football teams. Most of them played both sports actually. 90% tend to keep to themselves and maybe....just do assignments

3. The campus is far out there. It's not very convenient to commute to and from if you don't own a vehicle. Luckily the uni provides shuttle bus service. Well, they have to, don’t they?

4. Though tuition fees are cheaper but you don't get exposed to full on experience of living abroad and really using the language (English in this case) and you don't really learn how to survive in a totally strange environment, therefore, survival tactics aren't really developed (for Thai students in this case).

I can't really think of many cons though I could criticize about everything on every corner in WUT but I would just be bi*ching about small little things really. Well, bathrooms are plenty and clean if you want to know. Electricity rarely goes out so students can't really get the chance to officially skip class with full acceptance from lecturers.

It's getting late and I am out of memories for now. What I wrote above is what I experienced while attending WUT from Jan 2002 to May 2003. Things might have changed a whole lot. Any update from any present time students would be great.

I'm not pitching any sales here and I wouldn't try to do so. I believe what you do is what you decide for yourselves, I can only at least give some information. I guess you can go to any school if you want to learn for a start. A school can have just one book in the library but there are sources out there you gotta know what to do to get what you need. But then again, there are many schools out there that provide many things in front of your face, why struggle too hard? I believe there are one to 100 of reasons or more that help one choose where to go. I wouldn't attempt to guess and I wouldn't attempt to persuade or overate or berate anyone or anywhere.

I really don't know to who this topic is supposed to be but I hope at least I can offer a bit of an insight about this place. And I can say I had a great time, great experience, great friends and a graduate degree from WUT which is accepted by Thai government, Ministry of Education. And with that, I'm already happy

Bruce if you find this post I'm sorry I failed you. I messed it up with wrong grammar, bad co-ordination of story, typos and it's probably politically incorrect Forgive me!

Au revoir

Edited November 1, 2007 by jayhech

[PeaceBlondie]

jayhech, thanks for that long post. Heck, Jay, thanks for the entire post! I hardly ever read such long posts, and you kept me going. It reminded me of my undergrad campus days in Texas (we now have about four island or beach campuses there), in a school that then had 600 students. You could only take Criminology in odd numbered spring semesters, and Old Testament Theology in even numbered fall semesters...I managed both! But there were no courses in physical or cultural anthropology, no course in Christian ethics, and no course in Sumerian ziggurats, although they were mentioned in Old Testament survey. Our students included a Jamaican and a girl from the Gaza strip, lots of New Yorkers of Jewish descent, some atheists....at a Baptist school in Texas!

Can we have the website for Webster in Cha Am, please, so we can peruse the site?

[jayhech]

PeaceBlondie I know just how you felt!!! It's such a pity you're limited to something good but you actually want more. I remember how I wanted to take all those classes listed in the prospectus but it just wouldn't happen What you took for your undergrad's extremely interesting, by the way And such interesting combinations of students. And in Texas Do you live in Hua Hin now?

Anyway, here's the official website of WUT Cha-Am campus: http://www.webster.ac.th/

I think WUT still offers English as a Second Language classes for non-credit students if anyone knows anyone who wants to learn English.

Earlier this year Media Department offered short courses such as Photography and (I don't remember very well) probably Media Writing but I'm not sure if they still do this.

I believe there's contact details in the website under "Contact Us". I hope this is helpful.

Have a nice day

[PeaceBlondie]

jay, I don't live in the area now (back in Chiang Mai), but I enjoyed a nice break in HHin last week.

Texas has about 40 state universities, 40 private unis, and maybe 40 or 80 junior colleges and community colleges that offer post-secondary credits. Oddly enough, I took an advanced auditing course (upper division accounting) at Austin Community college, plus business law, and twice I flunked cost accounting!

At Oklahoma City Junior College, my classmates included an Iranian and a Belizean. Texas has two of the best engineering unis in the world. Stereotypes die hard, such as a Rhodes scholar from rural Arkansas becoming president, and another Rhodes scholar, Kris Kristofferson, graduating from high school in the toilet of Texas, Brownsville. My daughter just enrolled at Texas Southmost College!

Surely Webster and other small schools can provide a graduate education. In Thailand, the standards are not set at Oxbridge or Ivy League levels.