Strategies for Financing Higher Education: The case of Thailand (original) (raw)

FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION IN THAILAND AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

Financing Higher Education in A Global Market, 2005

A basic dilemma occurs in both developed and underdeveloped countries when individuals and society demand increased access to all forms of tertiary education while at the same time constraints are being placed on public budgets (UNESCO, 1995). This situation is exemplified in Thailand, a country economically depressed following the Asian economic crisis of 1997, but one where the higher education system, like others around the world, is being asked to respond to an exploding enrollment demand reflecting the challenges brought about by global competitiveness and interdependence, rapid advances in technology and new or renewed needs for both social and cultural development.

Student Loans in Thailand: From Social Targeting to Cost Sharing

International Higher Education, 2015

The Mantra of Privatization Privatization has become the mantra of the day everywhere, including the case of higher education. In addition to the above-mentioned methods of financial privatization, governments in many countries seem increasingly to be getting wedded to the neoliberal philosophy that centers on the role of markets in every sphere. Governments promote the growth of private higher education institutions-most of which can be described as "for-profit" institutions. The wave of privatization of higher education has become so massive that even predominantly public higher education systems began to emerge as predominantly private in a very short period, making the relative presence of the public higher education sector almost invisible.

The Enhancement of Tertiary Education in Thailand

The theme of this paper, and perhaps one of its major challenges, is to address the future and not the past, focusing not so much on the history of Thai education, but rather on the range of factors that fashion, mould, promote and, at times inhibit, the progress of change within Thailand's universities. These factors may be characterized as internal and external, a duality that merges as globalization impacts every aspect of Thai society. No longer can we look to the centuries old dichotomy, 'the West and the rest' as the phenomenon of 'globalization', rising global consciousness, the compression of distance, and the homogenization of culture, are irreversible and unstoppable forces that cannot be ignored.

The global expansion of higher education

Routledge eBooks, 2015

The global expansion of higher education Alternative perspectives The century-long expansion of higher education Higher education is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy today. Between 1815 and the period shortly after World War I, there was very little growth in the number of young adults attending colleges or universities, but starting in the 1920s, the number of students began to expand at an intensifying rate in the advanced capitalist world. By 1940, there were approximately five million university students worldwide. By 1960, this number had doubled to ten million (Schofer and Meyer, 2005). Fifty years later, in 2010, more than 177 million students were attending colleges and universities in all of the world's regions (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2012: 228). This increase represents a 5.9 percent annual growth rate in enrollments. If this rate of growth continues, the tertiary education population of students will nearly double every 12 years. To highlight the extraordinary nature of the trend, Schofer and Meyer point out that, today, there are approximately as many students attending colleges and universities in Kazakhstan as there were in the entire globe a century ago (Schofer and Meyer, 2005: 3). It is important to stress that nearly all regions of the world have been a part of this process. Western Europe, North America and Japan have the most tertiary students per capita-approximately 350 students per every 10,000 people-but Eastern Europe, after experiencing relatively slow growth in college education during the Communist period, has largely caught up to its Western neighbors. After the major OECD nations, Eastern Europe, the Arab world and Latin America have the highest share of college and university students in the total population. In addition, the student population of the East Asian and Pacific region is growing very rapidly. According to UNESCO, the student body in China has expanded by 19 percent per year during the first decade of this century. There are exceptions to these trends. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh's student bodies have grown more slowly, and sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest proportion of college students in its population, although growth is so rapid that UNESCO estimates that the number of students will double every 8.4 years (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2009). This growth is associated with significant regional changes in the composition of the university student body. There has been a sharp rise in the share of students

Reforms in University Education (Thailand)

Reforms in University Education (Thailand), 2014

Thailand graduated to an upper middle income economy on 1 July 2011. Its economy’s starlet performance between 1960 and 1997 with 7 percent average growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) manifested combinations of labour, capital accumulation and wise selection of components of total factor productivity (TFP). However, the decline in Thailand’s economy since 1997 Asian crisis has created concern and requires urgent attention. It is persistent and multifaceted. Thailand’s economy has been impacted in recent years inter alia by recurring political instability, insufficient investment in technology and human capital development, slowing productivity in agriculture and external shocks. Income inequalities are also prevalent. Therefore, this paper attempts to address one of the causes for recent economic slowdown in Thailand –human capital development.

Financing trends in Southeast Asia and Oceania: Meeting the demands of regional higher education growth

International Journal of Educational Development, 2017

The cost of higher education continues to escalate at an alarming and unsustainable rate. Public and private funding sources around the world are increasingly under pressure to reduce allocations for higher education while at the same time raising outcome expectations. Within this context, we examine good and best practices of higher education finance models in Oceania and Southeast Asia that reduce or at least help level off this unsustainable trend. We conclude with recommendations to assist policymakers, government planners, and higher education administrators in their attempts to meet the financial challenges of today and in the future.

Higher Education: Does Public Expenditure Increase Enrollment

2006

Abstract This paper evaluates the effects of public education expenditure on student enrollment in tertiary education. We use a cross% section of 132 countries to demonstrate that public expenditure on primary and sec% ondary education positively affects tertiary enrollment rates, while the generosity of tertiary education subsidies themselves do not appear to have any significant impact on enrollment.