Nov 03, 2009 09:52 PM
15343 Views
(Updated Nov 03, 2009 10:15 PM)
I believe that studying aboard is more beneficial than study in one's home country (The period of study can be varied depending on budget, ability and personal condition). I am so surprised that EU educators said studying aboard is " traditional method" of education, but the availability of the new books in the library alone will nullify other arguments. I do not believe you can just go on-line and find everything. Face-to-Face communication is essential as a part of learning others's culture.
Unfortunately, most Thai students prefer going to study aboard after completing their bachelor degree because of the language barriers. Talking about oversea education ( from Thais perspective) , India is one of the best countries in the world that offer excellent education. When I look up at ICCR homepage, I am so glad to see that there are a lot of Thai nationals who receive PhD from the most prestigious university like JNU (mostly in Political Science).
What I am saying is that the number might be small, but the quality is good. Professor Pramuan from Philosophy Department, Chiang Mai University said that Universities in India and Universities in Thailand are almost the same but the traditional educational institute like Santiniketan is not found in Thailand. Albeit arguing that Thailand has never colonized by the West, universities in Thailand follow all western standards to regulate their management. However, to study religion, we do not have to follow the western standard. Therefore, many students who study Muslim studies or Buddhist studies are the largest group of Thai students who went to India for study.
The second largest group of students is Indian-Thai (Indian with Thai passport who has ancestors from India). The main reason for them is to make a connection with the parents’ homeland and it is quite obvious that Thailand does not have enough educational programs using English as a medium of instruction. If these students go to Thai University, they will get bored because their math and English’s ability is a lot better than average Thai student. Compared to Chinese-Thai case, the Chinese-Thai do not like to go to study in China that much because the accommodation’s cost in China is quite high and most Chinese-Thai do not speak Chinese at home anymore. Moreover, Mainland China enforces the HSK test (Standardized Chinese Test of Academic). So, Chinese-Thai monopolized all ivy-league’s class in Thai Universities-Chula ( Recently ranked 49th of the world in humanities by Time Higher Education, 138th for all fields) , Thammasat, Mahidol . For other Thai people, there are 2 cases that they would go to study in India. The first one is those who like India. These people have no problems going to USA or UK, but they just want to spend time in India ( Government of India prefer giving the scholarship for those who never been to India yet). The latter is the one who can’t find the course of study in Thailand because the program of study they want to be enrolled is not available yet. For instance, we do not have PhD program in English Literature in Thailand yet. Meanwhile, there are a lot of universities to choose from if they want to do a PhD research in English Literature. Thai students who want to get admission at good universities would seek the scholarship from the government of India since their application will not be rejected from any universities. Thai students who receive scholarship usually go to Banaras Hindu University, Aligarh Muslim University, Pune, JNU, Delhi University, Chandigarh university etc (80% in Humanities). By the way, I will present my paper at the International Conference on Orality & Performanceon"Talking Tongues, Speaking Gestures" at Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University in January, I will teach Thai language in Assam for 5 weeks next year. So, now I am so excited to take a Tour in India’s Universities.
