Ohec: Uni exam costly and unfair
The Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) has called on universities and colleges nationwide to reschedule their direct-admission exams to allow students to save time and money.
The Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) has called on universities and colleges nationwide to reschedule their direct-admission exams to allow students to save time and money.
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Uni exam system a burden, says Ohec
Dumrongkiat Mala
The Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) has called on universities and colleges nationwide to reschedule their direct-admission exams to allow students to save time and money.
Ohec deputy secretary-general Soranit Silatham said the direct-admission exams conducted by various universities are scattered all year round, forcing students to be absent from classes as they travel to sit the exams.
If the universities they apply for are far from home, they must pay for food, transport and accommodation, which is costly.
"Many students spend a lot of time on several direct-admission exams," Mr Soranit said.
He added students from rich and middle-class families can afford to attend many direct-admission exams. Even when they have secured a place in a university, they carry on sitting other exams in the hope of getting into a more prominent university.
Also, some students stop paying attention at school altogether and solely focus on their admission exams.
"Imagine how much parents must fork out if their children apply for Chiang Mai University, Khon Kaen University and Songkhla University. How many days must he or she miss school classes?" Mr Soranit said.
The Quality Learning Foundation says the application fee for each exam is at least 700 baht.
"I've heard many parents complain they have spent nearly 100,000 baht for the direct-admission exams because they need to take many separate trips to the universities," he said.
Direct admission exams can draw massive numbers of test-takers, leading critics to complain that universities use them to generate revenue. Here about 35,000 students packed Muang Thong Thani's Impact Area for the direct admission examination for Srinakharinwirot University.
Mr Soranit said the direct-admission method needs to change because it has created educational inequality between poor and rich students.
He said the National Institute of Education Testing Service (NIETS) should create a system in which students can sit the direct-admission exams in a location close to their homes, with the scores from such exams used in their direct admission to the university of their choice.
"In my opinion, the direct-admission exam season should be limited to the period from January to June and every university should use the same exam papers," he said.
Tul Sitthisomwong, of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine, said the direct-admission exam system should be abolished as it gives students from well-to-do families an edge over those from poor backgrounds, who are unable to foot the bills of sitting many tests.
"The universities now hold the direct-admission exams for commercial purposes as the more students that attend their tests, the more money they make," he said.
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