English Language Degree Courses

[tvaddict]

My Thai 17 yr old niece is soon to finish Matayom 6 at a Thai govt. school and is presently applying to universities to study English Language.

She's doing the GAT PAT exams and is averaging around 3.3 GPA ( yet to receive final set of scores) so is doing well generally.

I'd like to be able to advise her on what courses to do, which are the best unis etc.

We've done quite a bit of research already but it seems difficult to get clear info all the time so I have a few questions....

Which unis offer the best courses/ have the best reputations for English degrees ? ( not just overall)

Are there any unis that offer degrees that will teach not just English Language but also another skill too- eg, Tourism, Marketing, Business, etc?

Do any of the courses offer the chance to study abroad as part of the course ?

What sort of fees / costs are usually involved?

Which unis/ courses have a good reputation for helping prepare/ find students employment afterwards?

Any comments on our shortlist-

Chula ( she just missed out on the necessary 500 score at the admission exams- got 496 but tells me there were only 16 places anyway on the course)- however we're pleased she came so close!

not sure of the details, entry requirements, etc with these but all have good reputations I've heard...

Thamassat

Kasetsart

Mahidol

Thanks in advance.

[jasreeve17]

She might be able to retest at Chula - it'd be worth getting into Chula. The arts department is number one in Thailand... Their International courses are very well respected too. I helped a student get onto the International business course; very hard because she had to pass the US SAT test, but passing that degree will give her a huge head-start. This course may also have the option of studying abroad - I know you get a couple of shots at that entrance exam. If it was my daughter I'd push hard for this course.

Thammasart courses are excellent - Tha Pra Chang campus seems to have really good students. A good campus for making connections which may help around job time because it's a small campus with a lot of students from rich families.

There are some teachers on this forum from Mahidol and Kasetsart, so I have to be careful - I don't rate either (English language courses) anywhere near as highly as the top two, above. Both are good unis to have on your CV though, so a high GPA from these two would be very helpful in getting a job.

You need to check out the individual courses, but many have a major / minor option, so you could study, for example an English major with Art History minor. It depends on her skills and preferences; options abound.

Cost-wise the universities vary, so check out the websites. Chula and Thammasart will be more expensive than most, but not prohibatively. The international courses are more expensive still, sometimes a lot more money.

The private Unis are likely to be more expensive; Bangkok, Siam, ABAC... Again, we have some teachers from these unis on the board, so I'm going to be hated even more; I've heard that many employers do not rate these certificates as highly as the four universities named above; the stigma is that you pay for a pass and can't be failed - this may not be true, but check with some employers to get a better idea. If you have a few friends who work in companies then just ask them to check with their HR departments which graduates they will consider for employment and which they won't...

I work at Chula and Silpakorn (Tha Chang campus). The latter has a strong English course because we have only 45 English majors per year with 3 full time foreign teachers focussing on these students. The Thai teachers are all fluent with PhD's from abroad (this is normal at the top 10 government universities, as the four above). It's also a very fun university because we're within the archaeology faculty within a very small arts orientated campus. Some of our students turned down Chula and Thammasart becuase they wanted a more relaxed environment. Our students do pretty well in the job market, probably not quite as well as the four universities listed above, but close(ish). We certificate the tour guides, so if that's an area she's interested in then Silpakorn's a solid choice.

Other folk will no doubt mention other good courses and good universities. I've missed out quite a few; Chiang Mai university is very good, for example.

Good luck.

And, don't forget to look through the ThaiVisa teacher's forum for other similar threads.

[tvaddict]

Thanks for the long reply and detailed info. Much appreciated.