Uni Classes In Tl As A Visiting Student

[spud67]

Mostly for personal interest, I am pursuing a gen knowledge Liberal Arts degree at an open style university in Canada. I would like to take some Thai language, Thai culture or SE Asia cultural studies as part of it. Does anyone have any experience attending a Thai university as a visiting student? If you did or know of someone who did, based on that experience would you recommend it? What are ballpark costs? Are there online options?

I am in no rush and intend to take my own sweet time finishing - over the next 6 - 8 years.

[FunFon]

The equivalent of "open" tertiary is Ramkanghaeng in northeastern Bangkok, very cheap but AFAIK doesn't offer any "international programmes" in English - is that what you were after?

Programs conducted in English abound at dozens of tertiary institutions (loosely called "universities") but you won't find many farang students, mostly wannabe-hiso Thais, lots of third worlders.

Don't expect a piece of paper with any credibility outside of Thailand, but you'd have lots of fun and oh the babes!

[Morakot]

but you won't find many farang students, mostly wannabe-hiso Thais, lots of third worlders.

"Third world"?

Almost half of all exchange students studying in Thailand are from China.

http://inter.mua.go.th/main2/article.php?id=201

[FunFon]

Like I said.

There's plenty of third-worlders living in the US too, and doubt any Chinese first-worlders are coming here for any pseudo-"education" unless it's in Thai-specific culture or language.

[Morakot]

OP, the easiest way is to go through your own institution and see whether they have a partner university in Thailand. Here an example http://www.muic.mahidol.ac.th/eng/?page_id=104 of international connections. If there are no exchange programmes for Thailand, you have to directly approach each Thai university and find out whether they offer "international programmes" on a non-degree base for a year or so.

Whether the obtained credits from a Thai university will count towards your degree that you are aiming for in Canada is a different matter all together.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Morakot

[FunFon]

The resource Morakot posted is a good starting point, as well as other materials available from the Ministry of Education and the Department of Export Promotion.

And as previously in line with Morakot as well

> Don't expect a piece of paper with any credibility outside of Thailand

In fact your stint in Thailand would probably be more of a negative than a plus wrt a mainstream corporate prospective employer.

[Morakot]

Taking the credits towards your own degree is straight forward where a formal exchange programme is in place.

In fact your stint in Thailand would probably be more of a negative than a plus wrt a mainstream corporate prospective employer.

Sure, only the small-minded ones would see this as negative.

[FunFon]

Sure, only the small-minded ones would see this as negative.

-

I agree, yet it never ceases to amaze me how many small-minded people somehow end up in charge of so much in the "real world" out there.

[spud67]

Thank you FunFon and Morakot for your discussion. I will expand my situation a little so you know more of what I am looking for.

I currently live on an island in the Arctic Ocean with no physical access to university, thus the open university and the use of online classes. The good is that I can (almost) tailor make the degree to my purposes and I can take courses from other established universities. I will be taking mostly cultural and history classes related to my home country. The bad is that the options for quality courses is restricted.

My TG/fiancee are planning to move back to Thailand in the future (8-10 years). I may decide to try to teach English. This is the only potential use of the degree (and a TEFL/TESOL certificate) for employment purposes. It is after all a Liberal Arts degree .

My university has a process in place to evaluate individual courses to determine elegibility for credit. Many courses in Canada and the US have been pre-approved and listed on their website but international courses need to be vetted; a process for which I pay. Additionally, as this is only a 3 year degree, typical first year university courses (100 level in Canada) are not elegible for credit.

So, this is what I am looking for... English taught courses in Thai or SE Asian culture or history studies or Thai language courses at university level. I am interested in online or in residence courses. But I believe that online education is not very developed in Thailand .

Thanks for all of the help.

[FunFon]

If you're going to come here and are interested in Thai language, then I would suggest just taking Thai lessons as intensely as possible first, never mind the credit. Once you've got to a certain point, enroll in Chula's linguistics program for Thai language for degree credit, the fact that you're not yet fluent in Thai shouldn't be a barrier in a linguistics department, some of the professors may even have enough English for you to understand them.

Thai history can only be properly learned outside of Thailand, since it's illegal for the truth to be taught here.

I'm sure there are some "Thai culture" courses taught in English but have no idea of where and think little of their value.

You can actually study ENGLISH as a foreign language for credit at many many unis here, and of course you will find it very easy and will probably have a much higher level of mastery than any of your professors.

The bachelor's will indeed be worthwhile for purposes of teaching English here, but there are many many other careers that you should consider, most TEFL teachers consider 40K a decent salary for full-time work and even if you think that's acceptable unfortunately you end up being bossed around by complete idiots who care nothing for you nor the profession nor the welfare of their students, very very frustrating way to spend most of your waking hours.