Bachelor's Degree graduates in Thailand face a bleak future for their careers

[samsensam]

And, let's face it. Most Thai Bachelor degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

lets face facts, most bachelors degrees are not worth the paper they are printed on from most universities in the world these days...

what a load of rubbish. i'm at an age where my friend's children have graduated and most have found good jobs in their chosen career, jobs that would not be open to non-graduates.

[horsewell]

The question is what are they learning and why? As far as I have heard many universities may as well be trade colleges. Check out Noam Chomsky and what he has to say about higher education. As much as companies want a BS... BA it's about skills. In the end and anyone who doesn't recognise that deserves the employees they get.

[KhnomKhnom]

All the current Thailand education system gives are worthless, easily gotten degrees that only teach students to find a way to slide by on their jobs, too.

[mogo51]

My partner is a school teacher of English/Maths. She teaches so called 'gifted' students, most of whom are anything but gifted. There are always a couple of standouts, usually race mixed Thai/western students.

The Thai education system does nothing to promote education, lessons dropped at the drop of a hat to party or celebrate some bullshit occasion.

Exams, might as well as not have them, failing a student who clearly deserves to be failed, is not an option.

[PaullyW]

I really wish people would reconsider using the ability to add numbers without a calculator as a proof of how educated someone is. These little things have very little bearing on anything young people will need to do in THEIR world. It is akin to criticising people for not knowing Shakespeare or for not having read Dante or something. Absolutely meaningless.

Critical thinking and the ability to seek and assimilate new information? That is useful. Ability to question authority when necessary? Understanding of ethics? Useful. Perseverance in work? Useful. Strong desire to complete work at a very high level (chasing perfection)? Useful. Strong proficiency in native tongue? Useful. Strong proficiency in secondary tongue like English to gain perspective on the world and acquire some of the vast knowledge that does not exist in Thai language? Useful. Ability to think of novel (better) ways to accomplish tasks (ie. being inventive)? Useful. Ability to think of and ask new questions and reframe problems? Useful.

It is a different world now. Nobody needs to add up numbers in their heads.

[Thai at Heart]

Yes the same applies in OZ, with Geologists the unemployment rate is 15 unemployed to 1 of everyone else, same across all degree students now the enrolments are dropping off as they see their mates still looking for work 2 years later after graduating , this also indicates the Australian mining industry is not as healthy as some would like you to believe, some of my Thai family have had degrees in Media and one did work as local TV manager, the whole station didn't get paid for 2months, so they all walked out, they have mostly given up looking and do other work, which pay's SFA.

I think OZ should focus on manufacturing. This is a value-added way to create new wealth. It has stopped building its own car brands and relied on natural resources.

Does it have its own brand of TV or computer or smartphone or... ???

If it has to buy all of that from other countries it is a wealth drain called negative trade balance and negative balance of payments.

No group can stand around with their hands in each others' pockets and believe they'll all get rich. Someone has to create new wealth. This is most easily done by converting raw materials into marketable and exportable products.

Australia is rich in land and natural resources and ocean and... It needs to maximize their value by adding value and this is what creates wealth and jobs.

I might be wrong, but isn't australia an island with a population of about 20+mn, with the nearest 1st world high wealth country Japan thousands of miles away.

No one is going to think to focus on australia as a manufacturing hub. If you reckon they can make and deliver a mobile phone for the same or less than china, then good luck

You make the point, thank you. Japan is also an island in the middle of nowhere but with a development and engineering culture not unlike Germany's. Germany started exporting the VW Beetle with great success in the 50's, and Japan came along and kicked their butts in that area with a conventional Datsun and Toyota that had a water cooled engine, a real heater, some space between your face and the windshield, and a real trunk. They were quieter, smoother, more powerful, more comfortable and were really a very small "real" car. They took at least the US by storm because the US was caught sleeping in that market.

Japanese means quality. They manufacture all kinds of high tech with their own designs. They aren't sucking hind tit like Thailand does by manufacturing what someone else developed for someone else. Yes they are good copiers, but aren't we all in some areas.

Look at what Japan manufactures and exports. What location advantage to they have over Australia?

The US developed the internet and so much software and hardware for it that is was up and running but without a good GUI. Then a Brit developed the hypertext markup language (HTML) and suddenly we had the web page instead of just DOS. More and more development and manufacturing followed and it made a ton of millionaires, and a ton of good jobs. The Brit's web page is probably what attracted the masses to the PC and the MAC. Suddenly it was easy where DOS certainly wasn't.

This is all new wealth and a new business model of several varieties. But it's jobs we never had before and they are great jobs.

The vast majority of what Japanese companies manufacture today is made outside Japan. Japan also got a huge push along post ww2.

Australia had its industrial time, until multinationals and global trade ate it up. Don't forget Japan has a large domestic market also.

I am not doing australia down, it is just that geographically is out on a limb without the necessary economic advantages to sustain a large manufacturing base anymore.

[KarenBravo]

I really wish people would reconsider using the ability to add numbers without a calculator as a proof of how educated someone is. These little things have very little bearing on anything young people will need to do in THEIR world. It is akin to criticising people for not knowing Shakespeare or for not having read Dante or something. Absolutely meaningless.

Critical thinking and the ability to seek and assimilate new information? That is useful. Ability to question authority when necessary? Understanding of ethics? Useful. Perseverance in work? Useful. Strong desire to complete work at a very high level (chasing perfection)? Useful. Strong proficiency in native tongue? Useful. Strong proficiency in secondary tongue like English to gain perspective on the world and acquire some of the vast knowledge that does not exist in Thai language? Useful. Ability to think of novel (better) ways to accomplish tasks (ie. being inventive)? Useful. Ability to think of and ask new questions and reframe problems? Useful.

It is a different world now. Nobody needs to add up numbers in their heads.

Huh?

As long as there are numbers and money, the world is the same.

Adding up numbers in your head has been a skill admired since before Roman times.

Showing that you can do it does not mean that you are deficient in other, more marketable skills.

I guarantee that some one that can do it, is smarter and more versatile than some one that can't and reaches for that calculator.

[BudRight]

I really wish people would reconsider using the ability to add numbers without a calculator as a proof of how educated someone is.

It would make sense to someone who knows only arithmetic.

[mrowe1973]

The problem with the USA now is all the manufacturing jobs moved to other countries. People here with degrees also struggle to find a job and middle class is disappearing. Fast food and Walmart just don't pay.

[Ozziepat]

Universities are now government-funded degree factories via student loans, direct subsidies and grants. The funding is relevant to them, education is not. More students who remain in school longer mean more money. Failing the paying customers isn't good for university business, so they don't. Numerous non-traditional courses and departments have been added to accommodate the excess of inept students. And so goes "higher education."

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Actually this as a good evolution.

An income of 2.4 times the income of somebody that finished highschool is still pretty high compared to most Western countries.

We've just talking about a bachelor degree here.

In my country somebody with a bachelor degree starts around 1.25 times the income of somebody with a highschool degree.

So, there still a lot of inequality between Thai people.

Most graduates in Thailand start on 14k or less, minimum wage is 9k.

I'm thinking the guys doing the calculations, didn't work all that hard getting their degree!

[Cake Monster]

My young daughter ( 11 ) only today before going on her way to School, said to me

" Boring, we have to learn telling the time again today, I learned that when I was a small kid "

Says it all really - doesnt it !

[thaibeachlovers]

But a degree in any of the computer sciences will land a good job. So will medicine. There is a shortage of those people.

If your an Indian national it will....

Could be but it will in the US too. Craigslist for instance is forever advertising for help on their front page. LINK

And there are lots of jobs for new nursing graduates due to baby boomer aging, and all areas of medicine for that matter.

Anything tech related is booming.

please excuse lack of capitals. i am typing one fingered due to fractured hand.

there are lots of jobs for new nursing graduates due to baby boomer aging,

that's a tricky one. when i started nursing it was hospital training, and they got all the recruits they needed to staff the hospitals. then it went to polytechnic training, and now to a degree level requirement and few people want to be nurses, which is why they have to import nurses from places like the phillipines.

the main problem i see is that the cost of graduate level nurses is unsustainable if there is an increasing demand, and to be true, a graduate level nurse is not necessary in most cases. so i think it is likely that there will be a return to lower paid hospital trained nurses.

remains to be seen whether that happens, or they just have less qualified nurses and lots more nurse aides to do most of the work.

as for Thai nurses, i don't know what they get paid, but there seems to be a lot of them in hospitals. however, they don't seem to do much/ any patient care, leaving that to the patient's relatives, and just give meds/ take recordings. my wife is in hospital, so i'm getting a good idea of the set up.

[AjarnMartin]

Could be something to do with the 'currency' of a Thai degree ultimately having no perceived value to prospective Thai employers. Does anyone on TV know of ANY university student failing to graduate because their work didn't merit the degree? Typically, for example, a Thai Marketing degree results in the graduate getting a job selling cosmetics in a store - not the aspiration of a Western graduate, surely?

[GarryP]

Could be something to do with the 'currency' of a Thai degree ultimately having no perceived value to prospective Thai employers. Does anyone on TV know of ANY university student failing to graduate because their work didn't merit the degree? Typically, for example, a Thai Marketing degree results in the graduate getting a job selling cosmetics in a store - not the aspiration of a Western graduate, surely?

Yes, many. As I mentioned earlier, the fail rate for Ramkamhaeng students is very high. This is an open university and you have to be motivated if you wish to graduate. It is not like many of the other universities, which are run like high schools where they have attendance records. It has a 70-80% attrition rate in the faculty of law. Many of the students are working and studying in their free time. Taking time off to sit exams.

Having said that, I believe many of the courses are run based on outdated materials and "outdated" lecturers. The text books for English I, II, II and IV are terrible, and in many instances incorrect. But at least those who graduated applied themselves rather than being spoon fed as they are in many other universities.

[trogers]

trouble is that the degree of knowledge associated to these degrees is very minimal, in reality they are no better than a western high school leaver and that doesnt mean finisher, it means someone that left as soon as they were able. When these people are still unable to add up manually, spell correctly or even understand an equation there is a big reason they are not able to get work. To pass a degree these days is a joke, they used to mean something 20 years ago when you needed to have a brain and think to be able to p[ass but no longer. Even iv]n schools they teach absolute garbage to the students, they treat them like idiots with their pass no matter what you answer tests and when only one class(out of several at the same level)actually teaches the harder subjects due to the fact most students cannot even fathom what the classes are about it becomes obvious.

Maybe some old fashioned learning and actually having to pass exams to advance or get a degree might help but I doubt it.

I recall, a friend, English teacher showed me one of his tests.....I couldn't believe it:

"Washington is the capitol of:"

a) Elvis Presley

Bangkok

c) USA

Beside that the question is very easy, even if you don't understand anything and make random marks you get 33% of the points. So with just guessing right on a few questions you pass.

I couldn't believe it......

(Some private University)

Mistake in an English exam question? Is that capitol or capital?

[thailiketoo]

Could be something to do with the 'currency' of a Thai degree ultimately having no perceived value to prospective Thai employers. Does anyone on TV know of ANY university student failing to graduate because their work didn't merit the degree? Typically, for example, a Thai Marketing degree results in the graduate getting a job selling cosmetics in a store - not the aspiration of a Western graduate, surely?

http://education-portal.com/articles/Top_Schools_for_Recreation_Studies.html

Top Schools for Recreation Studies

[thailiketoo]

But a degree in any of the computer sciences will land a good job. So will medicine. There is a shortage of those people.

If your an Indian national it will....

Could be but it will in the US too. Craigslist for instance is forever advertising for help on their front page. LINK

And there are lots of jobs for new nursing graduates due to baby boomer aging, and all areas of medicine for that matter.

Anything tech related is booming.

please excuse lack of capitals. i am typing one fingered due to fractured hand.

there are lots of jobs for new nursing graduates due to baby boomer aging,

that's a tricky one. when i started nursing it was hospital training, and they got all the recruits they needed to staff the hospitals. then it went to polytechnic training, and now to a degree level requirement and few people want to be nurses, which is why they have to import nurses from places like the phillipines.

the main problem i see is that the cost of graduate level nurses is unsustainable if there is an increasing demand, and to be true, a graduate level nurse is not necessary in most cases. so i think it is likely that there will be a return to lower paid hospital trained nurses.

remains to be seen whether that happens, or they just have less qualified nurses and lots more nurse aides to do most of the work.

as for Thai nurses, i don't know what they get paid, but there seems to be a lot of them in hospitals. however, they don't seem to do much/ any patient care, leaving that to the patient's relatives, and just give meds/ take recordings. my wife is in hospital, so i'm getting a good idea of the set up.

Good point. I was in a government hospital when I was working in Thailand and living alone. My boss paid for the hospitalization and hired two nurses aids (24/7) to look after me so I could have a private room. The hospital nurses brought the meds and took my vital signs and did charting. The private aids got the food and and bathed me and so on. Bathing was with cold water though (did I mention government hospital). The nurses aids were cheap and had no training but were pleasant and thoughtful and at the first hint of any trouble ran to get a nurse or doctor.

Then in another episode I was in an ICU of a private hospital for a week and had five nurses literally hovering over me every minute (heart stuff). They were all skilled ICU nurses both day and night shift. The five worked in the middle of the ICU and watched patients in 10 glass boxes of rooms around them.

[robsamui]

Given the fact that the Thai educational system is so poor and that you can buy the degree of your choice, I would think most Thai degrees are actually worth less than the paper they are printed on.

That said, I consider it something of a miracle that the holder of a Thai bachelors degree can actually earn 2.4 times what a high school graduate earns.

It depends on whom the employer is . . .

A few years ago I became friends with a Frenchman, a chemical engineer, who had worked for a long time making perfume and cosmetics for Dior. He wanted to set up a business on Samui manufacturing high end spa products. He had already leased the premises and so spent several months looking for suitably qualified chemists to work for him.

He contacted and arranged interviews with Post Graduate research students at two BKK universities and also the Uni of Songkla in Had Yai. He interviewed a total of 11 males and females, all with a BSc and working for their Masters degree. He then abandoned the project entirely, and the last I heard about him he had gone to Malaysia to try the same thing there.

Not one of these Thai students (he told me) had even the same level of education and knowledge of a bright French/Euro school leaver looking for a university place at the age of 18.

2.5 times the earning capacity of an office worker?

Not if you are a farang needing an educated and qualified assistant - for my friend these 11 post-grad students were of no value at all - simply unemployable.

R

[thailiketoo]

Could be something to do with the 'currency' of a Thai degree ultimately having no perceived value to prospective Thai employers. Does anyone on TV know of ANY university student failing to graduate because their work didn't merit the degree? Typically, for example, a Thai Marketing degree results in the graduate getting a job selling cosmetics in a store - not the aspiration of a Western graduate, surely?

Yes, many. As I mentioned earlier, the fail rate for Ramkamhaeng students is very high. This is an open university and you have to be motivated if you wish to graduate. It is not like many of the other universities, which are run like high schools where they have attendance records. It has a 70-80% attrition rate in the faculty of law. Many of the students are working and studying in their free time. Taking time off to sit exams.

Having said that, I believe many of the courses are run based on outdated materials and "outdated" lecturers. The text books for English I, II, II and IV are terrible, and in many instances incorrect. But at least those who graduated applied themselves rather than being spoon fed as they are in many other universities.

So do I and so do a lot of other folks. My wife hires engineers with degrees from Thailand, the UK and USA. She hires all of her Thai engineers from one particular school where she knows the faculty and she calls them and checks on the references of the students. That school has a yearly alumni party where the graduates get together and network about jobs and new employees and new outstanding graduates. It is like the old boy network at the college I graduated from. I never got a job walking in off the street. All the good jobs are filled from some kind of networking apparatus be it old boys or old girls or fraternity brothers or technical societies.

[kriswillems]

You think pi=22/7 also?

no, its a simple approximation that saves memorizing a string of decimals. there is no exact value of pi.

22/7 is not used in the engineering world - and that is my point. So much for Thai degrees being much better than Western degrees, therefore.

There is an exact value of pi, FYI, and it has been calculated accordingly.

I certainly would not drive a car whose wheels have been designed and pressed using the assumption of pi=22/7.

They'd be totally out of round after a million cycles (and that's not a very long time at all).

Computers used in manufacturing now use way over 30 decimal places for pi, where tooling accuracies are concerned, and cutting is concerned, because up-to-date cutters themselves (reamers, boring tools etc.) are now manufactured using nano-accuracies, way beyond what 22/7 can give as an approximation to 5 dec. places.

Thus, the assumption chotthee made indicates the level of Thai degree awareness of what is real, and what is not!

>>> There is an exact value of pi, FYI, and it has been calculated accordingly.

There is an exact value for Pi and it has never been calculated (as a decimal number), because it's impossible to calculate or even write down (as a decimal number).

But I agree that not using a calculator/computer in modern mathematics is not a sign of intelligence, it's an example of how conservationism leads to stupidity.

[willyumiii]

From what I have sen of Thai university graduates, it takes little more than four years in a class room to get a BA degree ( and I wonder id attendance is very important )

Thai English teachers with university degrees who can not speak, read or write or understand the English language!

Are these degrees earned through hard work and study or are they simply paid for?

Not just teachers, but many Thais with university degrees are not qualified to work in their field of "study"!

Maybe employers are finally wising up?

[DavidBensen]

Many of you might be forgetting the point here .... Manyposts are discussing, 'getting a job', getting money. Yeah sure, that's one of the reasons for studying a Bachelors degree, for money, and if that's your sole purpose, for money, then be smart enough as many suggest and study Law or Medicine or Engineering ... or any of the other areas recognised as high middle class jobs.

But higher education, a bachelors degree, no matter where from, IS worth more than the paper its written on and only the ignorant would comment otherwise. Higher learning is just that, higher learning, you learn to think differently than most, to rationalise better than most, to think in creative ways you would have thought about without having studied at Uni ... and any study helps expand the mind and its way of thinking.

This Topic headline is a disgrace, it disencourages learning, it discusses only the declining financial possibilities, though I note graduates still earn on average nearly 2.5 times more than those this who don't go on to further study.

Thailand's economy, and Thailand as a whole, can only improve if more Thais go onto higher education ... and the Thai government should seriously look into ways of helping Thais to educate themselves. Australia has an OK way it achieves this, by the government funding eligible courses and the student repaying the cost of the course when their income reaches a certain threshold, and then a small percentage of that income begins repaying the students loan.

There's two moral ways out of poverty ... EDUCATION or SPORTING ABILITY.

I did it, from a poor, single parent family, and it was only through education, or crime. I tried crime for a little while, but it was the two bachelor degrees, psychology then law, that changed the way I think, how I rationalise and left me with the feeling that I can solve any problem that comes my way.

EDUCATION is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself, and those you love, and Thailand could become a leading Asian Nation if more Thais have access to it, because Thailand has the environmental conditions to provide many wealthy countries with what they need ... water and food.

[kriswillems]

Like in many countries, one shouldn't only look at the degree obtained, but also at the name of the university where it was obtained and at the final score.

Degrees in Western Europe used to be pretty good and highly valued, but nowadays almost anyone is able to get some kind of bachelor degree, so we're going pretty much the same way as Thailand is going.

[thailiketoo]

Many of you might be forgetting the point here .... Manyposts are discussing, 'getting a job', getting money. Yeah sure, that's one of the reasons for studying a Bachelors degree, for money, and if that's your sole purpose, for money, then be smart enough as many suggest and study Law or Medicine or Engineering ... or any of the other areas recognised as high middle class jobs.

But higher education, a bachelors degree, no matter where from, IS worth more than the paper its written on and only the ignorant would comment otherwise. Higher learning is just that, higher learning, you learn to think differently than most, to rationalise better than most, to think in creative ways you would have thought about without having studied at Uni ... and any study helps expand the mind and its way of thinking.

This Topic headline is a disgrace, it disencourages learning, it discusses only the declining financial possibilities, though I note graduates still earn on average nearly 2.5 times more than those this who don't go on to further study.

Thailand's economy, and Thailand as a whole, can only improve if more Thais go onto higher education ... and the Thai government should seriously look into ways of helping Thais to educate themselves. Australia has an OK way it achieves this, by the government funding eligible courses and the student repaying the cost of the course when their income reaches a certain threshold, and then a small percentage of that income begins repaying the students loan.

There's two moral ways out of poverty ... EDUCATION or SPORTING ABILITY.

I did it, from a poor, single parent family, and it was only through education, or crime. I tried crime for a little while, but it was the two bachelor degrees, psychology then law, that changed the way I think, how I rationalise and left me with the feeling that I can solve any problem that comes my way.

EDUCATION is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself, and those you love, and Thailand could become a leading Asian Nation if more Thais have access to it, because Thailand has the environmental conditions to provide many wealthy countries with what they need ... water and food.

However, in Thailand, this strategy is causing havoc. A flood of graduates has swamped the labour market because the government lacks a plan to produce quality personnel for specifically targeted areas of need in Thailand’s labour market. (the (Thai) Education Council estimated that the number of new students enrolled in bachelors programs between 2007 and 2016 will be approximately 500,000 each year)

China also is experiencing a flood of graduates in its labour market, causing many of its graduates to settle for low salaries, some of which are almost on par with wages for labourers. Some experts predict that in the next 10 years, this problem will only become worse, making a solution difficult to find. The solution for China is to decrease growth in its higher education sector from 20% to 6 – 8% by setting more rigorous admission standards.

http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/print.php?id=2435

[tubby johnson]

trouble is that the degree of knowledge associated to these degrees is very minimal, in reality they are no better than a western high school leaver and that doesnt mean finisher, it means someone that left as soon as they were able. When these people are still unable to add up manually, spell correctly or even understand an equation there is a big reason they are not able to get work. To pass a degree these days is a joke, they used to mean something 20 years ago when you needed to have a brain and think to be able to p[ass but no longer. Even iv]n schools they teach absolute garbage to the students, they treat them like idiots with their pass no matter what you answer tests and when only one class(out of several at the same level)actually teaches the harder subjects due to the fact most students cannot even fathom what the classes are about it becomes obvious.

Maybe some old fashioned learning and actually having to pass exams to advance or get a degree might help but I doubt it.

I recall, a friend, English teacher showed me one of his tests.....I couldn't believe it:

"Washington is the capitol of:"

a) Elvis Presley

Bangkok

c) USA

Beside that the question is very easy, even if you don't understand anything and make random marks you get 33% of the points. So with just guessing right on a few questions you pass.

I couldn't believe it......

(Some private University)

Mistake in an English exam question? Is that capitol or capital?

Indeed. And Washington isn't even a "capitol" (sic) of anything. It's a state.

To stay on topic: One would guess that spending 4 years of your life in an educational institution would yield you extensive knowledge of your choice of major. Not in Thailand. No one ever fails, crap teachers have a safe job for life, students are "customers" and need to be served with degrees. Those kids ain't that stupid, and they are aware that they can buy a degree with a minimum of effort. No need to grow up, accept responsibility or face your shortcomings.

Thailand will remain a hub of low-end manufacturing, cheap service jobs, prostitution and riff raff tourism for decades to come.

[thailiketoo]

Indeed. And Washington isn't even a "capitol" (sic) of anything. It's a state.

To stay on topic: One would guess that spending 4 years of your life in an educational institution would yield you extensive knowledge of your choice of major. Not in Thailand. No one ever fails, crap teachers have a safe job for life, students are "customers" and need to be served with degrees. Those kids ain't that stupid, and they are aware that they can buy a degree with a minimum of effort. No need to grow up, accept responsibility or face your shortcomings.

Thailand will remain a hub of low-end manufacturing, cheap service jobs, prostitution and riff raff tourism for decades to come.

I just thought I'd list a couple of the riff raff jobs; there are thousands more if one looks. Do you think that BMW and Mercedes hires dumb kids who paid for degrees. Boy, if you do you are about as sharp as a cue ball.

BMW Manufacturing. BMW Plant Rayong

"One of the most efficient and flexible assembly plants."

Key competitive advantage to the BMW success in Thailand.

At both our manufacturing facility in Rayong and our offices in Bangkok, we seek responsible candidates who can join our team… highly motivated, diligent, self-assured, experienced, and able to communicate effectively at all levels. Do you fit this mold? If so, please do not hesitate to apply.

Mercedes-Benz has approved the building of an engine plant in Thailand, the first manufacturing facility the German luxury carmaker has had in the country in its 106-year presence.

Mercedes-Benz (Thailand) Limited, an automotive company operated under the umbrella of Daimler AG, the world's largest manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, was founded on January 14, 1998. Mercedes-Benz Thailand handles the importation, assembly, and distribution of passenger cars and commercial vehicles as well as provides full maintenance and after-sales services to its clientele. We are currently looking for qualified candidates to join the first class team according to the following position

[elliss]

And, let's face it. Most Thai Bachelor degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

Especially a BA in " English '.

BA = Bugger All.

Actually, BA degrees Thailand can open many doors , a job @ Tesco , Big C, 7/11,etc The Northern farmers daughters have greater expectation in life .

Enter the farlang .

[thailiketoo]

And, let's face it. Most Thai Bachelor degrees aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

Especially a BA in " English '.

BA = Bugger All.

Actually, BA degrees Thailand can open many doors , a job @ Tesco , Big C, 7/11,etc The Northern farmers daughters have greater expectation in life .

Enter the farlang .

Ford Thailand has collaborated with Habitat for Humanity to bring more than 100 executives and employees as volunteers to build houses for two low income families in Bueng Cham-or sub-district, Pathum Thani province.

[Greer]

trouble is that the degree of knowledge associated to these degrees is very minimal, in reality they are no better than a western high school leaver and that doesnt mean finisher, it means someone that left as soon as they were able. When these people are still unable to add up manually, spell correctly or even understand an equation there is a big reason they are not able to get work. To pass a degree these days is a joke, they used to mean something 20 years ago when you needed to have a brain and think to be able to p[ass but no longer. Even iv]n schools they teach absolute garbage to the students, they treat them like idiots with their pass no matter what you answer tests and when only one class(out of several at the same level)actually teaches the harder subjects due to the fact most students cannot even fathom what the classes are about it becomes obvious.

Maybe some old fashioned learning and actually having to pass exams to advance or get a degree might help but I doubt it.

I recall, a friend, English teacher showed me one of his tests.....I couldn't believe it:

"Washington is the capitol of:"

a) Elvis Presley

Bangkok

c) USA

Beside that the question is very easy, even if you don't understand anything and make random marks you get 33% of the points. So with just guessing right on a few questions you pass.

I couldn't believe it......

(Some private University)

Some years ago we had to arrange to get some technical graduates from a local college to fill jobs in a broadcast related facility in the Middle East.

We spoke to the college and told them we would set some typical test questions for the applicants to answer, and the best of those would be interviewed.

Initially we wrote questions that required long form written responses, but the college were horrified and told us to make them multiple choice, so we did.

Our marking system was simple, and should always be applied to multiple choice: +1 for a correct answer, -1 for incorrect, and 0 for no response.

The applicants had all just graduated in electronics from the technical college - our test was based on their curriculum - the highest mark was 17%.

For those in the electronics field, you will recognise how poor were the quality of replies when I tell you that almost none of the approx 30 to 40 applicants knew what a MOSFET is!

So it's not just Thailand by any means...