Mahanakorn tops uni poll

New varsity trumps old school in rankings

Writer: SIRIKUL BUNNAGPublished: 9/09/2009 at 12:00 AMNewspaper section: News The ranking of Mahanakorn University of Technology as the country's No.1 university ahead of well-known public institutes has shocked education experts.

Mahanakorn topped the latest assessment by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) in two categories: research and learning qualities, and the quality of graduates.

Suranaree University of Technology came second in the two categories, according to the agency which released its findings yesterday.

Continued here - http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2348...n-tops-uni-poll

-- Bangkok Post Sept. 9, 2009

I'll be the first to say it, and of course I am biased, but *cough* *cough* *cobullsh#tough* *cough*

Anyone who thinks these Tech schools are the best in Thailand, ahead of Mahidol, Chula, Thammasat, Chiang Mai, etc, are smoking crack...

Anyone who thinks these Tech schools are the best in Thailand, ahead of Mahidol, Chula, Thammasat, Chiang Mai, etc, are smoking crack...

Yeah, a bit wierd.

I'd be interested to know how they specified 'research and learning qualities' and 'quality of graduates'...

I found the article very interesting. Either it's true and we've all been brainwashed or.....

"There are 16 colleges or universities which fail to meet the criteria set up by the agency; 10 of them have been given six months to improve. "Mr Somwung refused to name the six schools which failed to meet the standard and were not given a second chance for the review. He said three of them are community colleges and three are private universities."

I'd love to know who they are. Are they 16 universities over the time since ONESQA has been doing assessments or in the latest batch being reported on?

ONESQA are the people who come to schools and spend a week or so evaluating the school. Then they give a report to the admin on the last day. We had a group of them a year or two ago. They were retired school directors, MoE officers and the like. Very pleasant, but with clout. They are an independent agency, i.e. not accountable to the MoE. I don't know who they are accountable to, the Minister I suppose.

It'd be good to know their criteria for universities. For schools they told us when they came. Universities are usually more complex and multifaceted (undergrad/postgrad studies; teaching; research; institutes; international programs; publishing and citations; distance mode; outreach, etc.), hence the range of categories in which a university is rated.

Actually, Suranaree is considered by many as a very good engineering school.

"Mr Somwung refused to name the six schools which failed to meet the standard and were not given a second chance for the review. He said three of them are community colleges and three are private universities.

The ONESQA has found 29 public and private colleges or universities offering 52 disciplines which are not up to standard."

It would nice for the students graduating from high school this year to have this info. It might help them make better informed choices of where they want to study next year.

Anyone who thinks these Tech schools are the best in Thailand, ahead of Mahidol, Chula, Thammasat, Chiang Mai, etc, are smoking crack...

It would be interesting to find out on what criteria you base your observation on.

I happened to teach at MUT 1995-2000. At the time it had probably the best English language department of any university. It had a highbrow physics department. And i recall about a dozen of its teachers going over to live and research in the UK for a year or so. The objective was to learn from Imperial College London (from memory) the requirements for launching a satellite. The plan was to return to MUT with the required knowledge, and with the help of the Chinese, they duly launched the satellite, again this actual launching is from the best of my memory.

They were a most forward thinking university and had good connections with the UNSW from Sydney, Australia. Dr Sittichai, the president, was a somewhat more forward-thinking member of Thailand's elite education system. I do understand that he has now retired, and had heard the university was going downhill. But i think that comment might have been just as objectively balanced as LawnGnome's one. Not sure.

So, it's not altogether surprising to me to hear this news, especially if research has carried on in the same vein as when i was working there. They also had a farang dean, and it's rare i think to have such foreign input so high up in a university's thinking and innovative ideas section in thailand's unis.

I also remember the uni for being in the lovely countryside of Nong Chok, so learning there and teaching there had considerable non-academic benefits for those lucky enough to be at MUT.