Growing number of Chinese students study in Thailand

The number of Chinese students studying in Thai universities is growing steadily, local press reported Monday.

Pavich Tongroach, secretary-general of the Education Ministry's Higher Education Commission, said the number of Chinese students at Thai universities had increased from about 1,000 four or five years ago to about 4,000 this year.

Low fees, cultural similarities and the variety of interesting courses on offer contribute to the growing trend, he was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying.

The Chinese students include those taking full international courses for four years and those taking short-term classes. Among the full courses, the most popular are business administration, tourism, IT and the sciences, while the most sought-after shorter courses are Thai-language classes taken by Chinese students majoring in Thai.

Pavich said Thai-language courses are popular in China because of the increasing number of Thai tourists visiting China each year, as well as growing business connections between the two countries.

Yutthana Suwannatarn, deputy director of the Registrar's Office at Assumption University (Abac), which has more Chinese students than any other universities, said the number of students from China had increased at an average of 15 percent per year over the past 30 years.

The reasons lies in Thailand's relatively low cost of living compared with the United States or Europe, the comparable standard of education (at least at Abac), the feeling of being safe and the similar cultures of the two countries, he said.

Thanyarat Jivaketu, vice president for international and public relations at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said that in response to the influx of Chinese students, the university launched a project to admit 60 exchange students annually from Guangxi University to an eight-month "Thai Language for Business" course last year.

More and more Chinese will come to Thailand as the Chinese population is huge, Thanyarat said. She was confident that with an increasing number of exhibitions introducing Thai universities in China, many more Chinese would choose Thailand as the place to study.

"It's not just about education, but will also lead to a better economic relationship between the two countries," Thanyarat said.

Source: Xinhua 2006-04-17

Not only Chinese students . It's a trend that will continue to grow when you consider that the universities in the West get more and more expensive, and the universities in Thailand remain inexpensive and are getting better all the time.

It'll also be interesting to see if this leads to more pressure on the Thais to do well and compete with the Chinese, or if it will bring the Chinese student standards down...

Back when I was in a public uni, people tried to stay out of classes with a lot of Chinese because their work ethic would kill the curve....