Mahidol Students To Launch Musical Protest

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Mahidol students to launch musical protest

By The Nation

Hundreds of students and employees at Mahidol University's College of Music will today wear black and stage a musical rendering for college dean Assoc Prof Sukree Charoensuk to stay on.

Sukree tendered his resignation letter on August 1 to claim responsibility for the refusal of Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC) to grant two of the college's seven programmes a bachelor of music.

OHEC has insisted that the two programmes in Music Industry Technology and in Music Business be based more on academic theory than practice and should instead be awarded a bachelor of arts, music major. The OHEC decision has affected 332 graduates of the college.

Sukree's resignation will take effect from September 30.

Students and employees of the college have rallied in support of Sukree. They will today stage a musical protest in front of the Office of Mahidol University's president.

Tomorrow, they will show up at OHEC to demand an explanation.

Sukree yesterday said he would review his decision to resign only if OHEC agreed to approve all of the college's programmes the way the college had planned them to be.

"I think parents, students, and people in society should think about what has happened. OHEC has no music experts," he said.

He believed those not really well-informed should not be allowed to judge such programmes.

OHEC deputy secretary-general Piniti Ratananukul said two teams of specialists had been assigned to review the two programmes in question and they had the opinion that a bachelor of music would be awarded only if the programmes placed greater emphasis on practice.

"We have informed the College of Music of the specialists' opinion but the college has refused to adjust," Piniti said.

-- The Nation 2011-08-31

[SomTumTiger]

This is my school where I have worked for 9 years. My Dean is one of the true visionary music education leaders in the world, and he has created a world class music school, in less than 20 years. There are some people on the Office of Higher Education commisssion that are determined to cause trouble, and they don't let the facts get in the way of their arguments.

Going to the OHE offices today - hoping for the best.

[Scott]

Best of luck and keep us informed.

[FWIW]

Office of Higher Education commisssion

A more incompetent, meddling bunch of %^&***&s would be hard to find, even in Thailand. They are doing real damage to higher education in Thailand, as if it was not in bad enough shape to start with. Pretty much everything they touch gets screwed up almost beyond fixing.

Edited September 3, 2011 by FWIW

[SomTumTiger]

On Thursday a group of 400 faculty, staff, and students staged a protect in front of Ohec. Full on with song singing, speeches, grievance lists, and tv and reporter crews from everywhere. I was great. A Dept. Sec. Gen came down, and invited the entire group to come to the large indoor lecture room, and talk.

The official was alone for a while, trying to defend the actions of the commitee.

Basically, there is very few highly educated musicans in Thailand. And those who don't work at my university, are rather jealous of my boss's success at developing his programs, and building an amazing looking campus to help provide learning facilities for students. These same jealous lecturers (from Chula and Kasetsart) were the ones blackballing the program for lacking "Sufficient quality". One only has to come visit the Mahidol College of Music to know that they are full of crap.

The Deputy Sec. Gen. was facing about 50 senior Thai and International professors, and he was way out of his depth. I call him a "bookmark" because he didn't really do anything, and was only holding the room until the decision makers arrived.

After an hour, the Minister of Education, the Sec. Gen. of the Ohec, and MP Adisorn (yes the red shirt), arrived. Adisorn, it seems, is a music lover, and has been keeping the minister abreast of what was going on. The minister of ed was softspoken, and difussed the angry students. He assumed complete oversight over the accreditation process, removing it from the biased subcommitee, and promised to make a review and decision in 2 weeks. It looks as though my Dean will be victorious, but he is still going, on Thai tv, encouraging wholescale changes in the system than produce such a lack of transparency.

It was a stressful week, but seems to be heading in the right direction. I was actually on stage during most of the meeting. If you see any tv broadcasts, look for the lone farang on stage lol. That was me.

Many many stories and tv programs on this, in Thai, for those that are interested. Cheers!

[Scott]

Thanks for the update and a little insight into the inner workings of the system.