Global Development

History

Historically, the idea of a community college system in Thailand has been around for awhile. They seem to have been first considered in the early 1970’s. Thailand’s Third Economic and Social Development Plan (1972-1977), for example, recommended such a policy and some preliminary planning took place for the establishment of a community college in Phuket, in the south of Thailand.¹³⁵ Unfortunately, nothing was done beyond the preliminary planning.

The following period, that of the Fourth Economic and Social Development Plan

(1978-1982) strongly urged a policy that would “lay the groundwork for setting up community colleges in various regions in accordance with economic and social needs.”¹³⁶ In fact, one “community college” was created by Prince of Songkla University in Phuket province in the south of Thailand. However, among the problems with this structure was the fact that there was no provision for transfer of credits or articulation with the University at which it was created. Support for this experiment waned and the community college was phased out.

From 1982-1986 another experiment took place. Thailand concluded that it was overproducing teachers, so the government proposed converting four teacher’s college to community colleges – these were Chiang Mai, Ubonrajathai, Nakornrajasima, and

Nakornrithamaraj colleges. Before the conversion began, however, the decision was reversed by the Parliament and the teacher colleges were allowed to offer curricula other than just teacher training programs. The community colleges intended to be created from the teacher colleges were automatically dissolved.

Another experiment followed in the next economic and social development plan. In this period, specialized colleges such as physical education, drama, art, and agriculture were named “community colleges.” However, by traditional criteria, they were not community colleges at all….they were single subject colleges, controlled by the central government, and had very limited enrollment and few jobs for those who did graduate. Enrollments were so low in fact, that many eventually closed. Still, the idea of community colleges, loosely based on a U.S. model, was kept alive during this period

(1972-2000) by foresighted Thai educators, many of whom had been educated in the U.S.

During this period, the U.S. government also promoted the idea of community colleges in Thailand and in 1994, through the US Agency for International Development, proposed to build a “community college” in each of Thailand’s four regions.”¹³⁷ This idea, however, never became fully implemented because shortly after announcing the proposal, the U.S. declared Thailand a fully developed country and withdrew U.S.A.I.D. funding for this and other developmental activities.

The idea never faded, however, and the economic crash in Southeast Asia in 1997 gave new impetus to the idea and momentum again surfaced for community colleges. The

economic collapse/crash in Southeast Asia in 1997/98 convinced many that Thailand was

falling behind its global competitors in human resource development, that it’s growing

population did not have access to meaningful higher education and that its economy would continue to falter if it did not make a stronger effort to education its population,

particularly its workforce.

One result of this was the passage of the 1999 National Education Act. This legislation obligated the government to provide 9 years of compulsory education (it had been six) and 12 years of free education for those who wanted it. In turn, this drove projections that the number of high school graduates would, by 2006, rise to 800,000 a year, an increase of nearly 50% over the year 2,000. And, of the 400,000 high school graduates in 200,000, only 25% were enrolled as first-year students in public and private colleges and universities in Thailand. Since this percentage was also projected to increase, action had to be taken to improve access to higher education. Part of that action came with the election of the Thai Rak Thai political party in 2000.

In February, 2001, newly elected Prime Minister Thaskin delivered a speech to the National Assembly in which he promoted community colleges as opportunities to provided higher education to the rural areas, lifelong learning for all, and education for

those who had previously “missed their chance” for higher education.¹³⁸ Community

colleges, it was announced, “are to be founded in the provinces where higher education is

not available.”¹³⁹

Within a short period, an Office of Community College Administration was created within the Ministry of Education and the responsibility for creating these new colleges fell to Professor Dr. Kasem Wattanachai, Minister of Education, Dr. Sirikorn Maneerin, Deputy Minister of Education, Ms. Sunanta Sangthong, and Dr. Tanom Inkhamnert (co-author of this article). It is worth noting that all these key administrators have advanced degrees from US higher education institutions where they had become familiar with the concept of the comprehensive community college. Dr Kasem, for example, holds an M.D. degree from the University of Chicago.

It should be noted, as an aside, that during this development period, strong

encouragement for the policy of creating a community college system continued from

three major outside sources---the Institute for International Education, the Kenan

Foundation in Asia, and the US Embassy. These agencies provided advice, some

consultants, and some minor funding in furtherance of a policy already decided by the Thai Government.

One key meeting, as an example of this kind of encouragement, took place in March, 2001, between Thai community college leadership and representatives of US community colleges, IIE, and others. Partially funded by the US Department of Education and a private donor, with additional financial assistance from the US Embassy and the community colleges of Hawaii, and significant funding from the Thai Ministry, a three day conference on community college development was held in Hawaii at the East-West Center. The meetings focused on community college philosophy, organizational issues, workforce development activities, governance, management issues, and site visits to the colleges of Hawaii. At the conclusion of the meetings, the East-West Community College Partnership was formed, an informal group designed to work co-operatively on the development of the Thai community colleges. Purveyor

Over the past several years, the Partnership has obtained several grants from the US Department of State, USAID, and other sources, for its work with system development, with individual Thai Community College Directors, teacher training and development, curriculum needs analysis, and trustee training.

The Thai side has more than matched the funds spent on these projects and has also sent several delegations to the US for site visits, program observations, and training.

Additionally, the Kenan Foundation in Asia has provided (and continues to provide) some funding for related activities.