Will university enrolment changes bridge rich-poor gap?

One central university exam set to replace universities giving own exams (direct admissions) reducing costs for poorer students, but still too many exams.

EDUCATION REFORM

Will new university enrolment system bridge the rich-poor gap?

5/09/2016
Dumrongkiat Mala

The university enrolment system is being overhauled by the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec).

The aim is to solve the chronic problem of inequality between applicants from well-off nd lower-income families.

HOW DOES THE NEW SYSTEM WORK?

The new system moves away from the old direct admissions system in place at many universities.

Under the new system, high school graduates will take a central university entrance exam sometime after mid-March every year.

Candidates will continue to sit the GAT/PAT technical tests as well as the national nine core subjects.

They will then be allowed to use the score result to apply for four choices of faculties.

ELIMINATING WELL-TO-DO FAMILY ADVANTAGE

The change aims to eliminate inequality resulting from university direct admissions programs in which universities give their own exams and make their own selections of students based on those tests.

That system has been criticised for offering advantages to applicants from well-to-do families who could afford the cost of travelling to sit exams at multiple universities.

Wealthier families could also afford to send youngsters to cram schools before the entrance exams to improve their chances.

Once the results were announced, they were ready to pay a deposit to secure a place to study.

They also gamed the system, giving up the reserved seat if they gained a seat at a better university.

This left those with limited budgets fewer choices of places to study.

ANNOUNCE SCORES BEFORE STUDENTS CHOOSE UNIVERSITIES

Under the new system, scores will be announced before students choose universities and they will be allowed to choose twice.

With their scores, they can then apply to their preferred tertiary education institutions.

The higher score, the better the chance they will have of being accepted.

Universities will then notify applicants whether they are accepted or how many places are available through a clearing house.

If unsatisfied, the applicants could reapply in the second round at certain universities that provide seats.

However, if an applicant wins placement in the first round and decides to enroll, he will be barred from reapplying in the second round, he said.

STILL TOO MANY EXAMS

While the change is winning support from education experts, they say the agency needs to do more than just eliminate direct admissions to provide equality in educational access and narrow the gap between the rich and poor.

Athapol Anunthavorasakul, from Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Education, said Ohec needs to reduce duplication in some exams.

For example, students now have to take exams in English at least three times in the O-Net, GAT/PAT and the national nine core subject examinations.

If students have to deal with too many exams with more limited choices and time to study in higher education, they will need to pay for extra tutoring and application fees anyway, he added.

ONE STANDARD EXAM

Mr Athapol suggested Ohec should merge duplicated exams in some subjects into one standard exam.

Then it would be best to only allow some specific faculties such as medicine, engineering and science to request applicants take aptitude tests to ease the burden on students.

"In formulating policy, the decision-makers need to acknowledge the mistakes from the past."

"Don't make policy without evidence that the outcome will change for the better." (i.e. evidence-based policy rather than old antiquated policies).

We should not put too much stress on students and blocking them from experiencing the depth and joys of life," he said.

Mr Athapol also suggested the ministry improve its student guidance services (guidance counselor) to ensure students figure out their career plans before choosing a faculty.

Thai students and parents are obsessed with university degrees, he said, adding they usually overlook vocational degrees despite the high market demand for technicians and specialists (note, however, that university degrees at some point are often needed to progress on to management positions in these technical vocational fields which conditions student preference for a university degree).

PUTTING EDUCATIONAL QUALITY BEFORE QUANTITY

Education expert Sompong Jitradub agreed the flaws of the tertiary education system are too deep to be simply fixed by tweaking the central admission exam.

Another big issue is the quality of the universities, some of which are churning out substandard graduates.

Mr Sompong said the expansion of educational opportunity in this country has often fed through into the opening of new colleges, resulting in a larger number of education institutions. But the quality of their graduates is not always consistent.

"Universities have started to focus on quantity rather than the quality of the students, so they can survive," he said.

The expert also cited what he considers a a flaw in the new system that students with higher scores will apply for well-known universities while the lesser-known courses will be left empty.

If a university fails to adapt to improve its reputation, the quality gap between the two will widen, he added.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1078424/university-enrolment-changes-alone-wont-close-the-rich-poor-gap

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