University Fee For Thai Children?

[bobthedog]

If my children are Thai citizens, can they take a bachelor and master degree at a Thai government university for free, or will they need to pay? If not free, what kind of costs should one expect to pay?

Thanks :-)

[Mirth]

I have 2 workers children just started uni this year. One paid 50,000 for fees and the other 30,000. That is per annum and only fees. It seems like the fees are based on the uni and course taken. Better uni and courses will have to pay more. There are misc costs from the uni as well which i heard is rather high cos they have to pay for tutorial materials themselves so am guessing it's in the region of less than 100,000 excluding food, lodging and transportation.

[Mario2008]

Per above, they need to pay and it depends on the course and university. Most you pay per term, with the first term being extra high as you also pay for the use of the library, computers etc at the univrsity during the study.

[Trembly]

No such thing as free (at point of use) education in Thailand.

[bobthedog]

So I guess about 400,000 THB would do it for a bachelor and a master per child then (assuming 2+2 years and 50,000 THB/semester) in a government run university.

Edited June 19, 2011 by bobthedog

[MikeyIdea]

Government universities

Sample: Ramkhamhaeng University - There is an enrollment fee also at government universities, a couple of hundred bath something, or was it a thousand bath? Not expensive

Total cost for a year including books is generally not over ten thousand bath

Now, Ramkhamhaeng is not considered a good university of course and someone who finishes Ram have to fight with hundreds of thousands of other students with similar "low status degrees", plus the tens of thousands of students from "better" universities.

Government universities are open, responsibility necessary, class participans are in the hundreds, teacher / tutor access not easy and not good

Sukhuthai is an open government university that has good reputation, still very cheap, difficult - high status degree

There are government universities both for batchelor and master, we generally talk 4 + 2 years in Thailand. If student work and study, then 5 - 6 years for the batchelor is not unusual at all

Good Luck

Edited June 20, 2011 by MikeyIdea

[vont]

and many have almost forgotten to mention that....

university requires....

competitive examinations.... as well....

[jombom]

The Open University is about the cheapest --- approx 5000 baht per year, depending on which course.

http://www.stou.ac.th/Eng/

Thai people refer to it as ''Sukhothai''

There appears to be little or no information, given at high school about this option.

Interestingly, it is also available to people who never completed high school, under certain conditions.

[richard_smith237]

Regarding the range of prices I have found the general information provided in this thread useful.

My wife's study:

3 Year BA at Rangisit Uni at a cost of approximately B360,000 (+/-10 years ago)

1 Year MA at Thammarsat Uni at a cost of approximately B40,000 for the year (+/-10 years ago)

Rangsit being at the expensive range of Private Universities demands higher fees and 10 years on I'd imagine the fees would have increased significantly...

Thammarsat is a highly reputable Public University and along with Chulalonkorn University is cheaper than comparative private Uni's and is a difficult to get into due to its high demands.

Ramkhamhaeing Uni has a reputation "Easy to Get Into - Difficult to Get Out" - meaning that they accept lots of students but their courses require a greater independence and self discipline (students appear to be given enough rope to hang themselves). Taksin's son (or relative) was accused of cheating in an exam at Ramkamhaeng Uni a few years back - I doubt that someone as highly profiled as Taksin would allow his son to go to a shoddy Uni, as such I might point out that Ramkamhaeng also has a decent reputation.

As another poster has pointed out. The real goal is to put your kids ahead of other kids as the competition for employment these days means that a degree is not enough. A good uni will also result in a 'good network'.... We all know that in countries like Thailand a lot of the time its 'who you know'.... I would hope to be able to combine this with Schooling and a Uni that nurtures the 'critical thought process' evident as a result of Western Education with the Contacts and Respect nurtured in the Thai Educational system.

[Atmos]

cannot vouch for the accuracy of this website - but maybe worth a look; it gives a range of 15,000 to 336,072 per semester

The Top-20 tuition fees of accredited international Bachelor degree programs: for Thai students (Thai nationals only)

[MikeyIdea]

The Open University is about the cheapest --- approx 5000 baht per year, depending on which course.

http://www.stou.ac.th/Eng/

Thai people refer to it as ''Sukhothai''

There appears to be little or no information, given at high school about this option.

Interestingly, it is also available to people who never completed high school, under certain conditions.

There are a number of open universities in Thailand, Sukhothai is the best one with the highest status. It is not easy to get through Sukhothai. Yes, Ramkhamhaeng is also considered (a bit) difficult to get through (by most but certainly not by all) but Sukhothai is in a totally different league. I should add that there are quite a few (Thai) companies that sort applications moving Sukhothai and other "better reputation" universities up...

Approx 10,000 bath per year including books is a fair estimate also for Sukhothai

Edited June 20, 2011 by MikeyIdea

[jombom]

Okay, you are including books, which are optional for some courses.

But, I accept some practical degrees might require equipment or materials. Also, there could be field work assignments etc.

So, basically, the cost is based on the degree, but lets agree between 5k and 10k for Sukhothai.

[bobthedog]

About The Open University (http://www.stou.ac.th/Eng/), do you know if classes are taught in both English and Thai? I cannot find that information on their website. Thanks!

[skybluestu]

About The Open University (http://www.stou.ac.th/Eng/), do you know if classes are taught in both English and Thai? I cannot find that information on their website. Thanks!

Unfortunately not.

http://www.stou.ac.th/Eng/Programs.aspx

[phuketrichard]

I am looking at Mahidol university for my Thai/American daughter (ranked best university in Thailand)

for the ENGLISH courses which they offer full degrees,

600,000++= for 4 years

Mahidol