PhD program boom: 53% below standard
25,000 PhD students in 1,000 programmes, up from 1,380 students in 2008, has led to decline in quality, putting profit before quality.
25,000 PhD students in 1,000 programmes, up from 1,380 students in 2008, has led to decline in quality, putting profit before quality.
UNIVERSITIES & EDUCATION
PhD program boom: 53% below standard
19/04/2017
Dumrongkiat Mala
Eight PhD courses or "doctoral study programmes" or "PhD programmes" in Thailand have been found to be substandard, according to an annual audit by the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC).
This is according to OHEC's secretary-general Supat Jampathong speaking yesterday.
Just ro remind readers, a PhD degree or "doctoral study programme" is the highest degree in a subject, for example chemistry or history.
People who receive PhD degrees usually, but not always, go on to teach and do research in universities or so-called "think tanks" or other research institutions.
ONLY 9 OUT OF 17 (53%) OF RANDOMLY SAMPLED PHD PROGRAMS MET STANDARDS
The agency randomly inspected 17 PhD programmes at seven universities.
"We were surprised to find that only nine meet our standards,'' Mr. Supat said.
The audit found that eight of the doctoral study programmes, provided by seven Thai universities, failed to meet its standards.
The agency refused to reveal the names of the specific PhD programmes that were audited.
The seven universities audited by Ohec this year were Assumption University, Chulalongkorn University, Eastern University of Management and Technology, Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, Buriram Rajabhat University, Silpakorn University and University College of the Crown (East Campus).
Mr Supat said Ohec plans to examine more doctoral programmes in the future.
WHY DID PHD PROGRAMMES FAIL AUDIT?
Over-enrollment of students and unqualified PhD programme instructors were the two main reasons PhD programmes failed the audit.
Mr Supat said a number of universities have exceeded their quota of student enrolments on some PhD courses, while others lacked qualified instructors.
To set up a PhD course, an university needs to have at least three PhD holders in a related field develop the curriculum and serve on a panel to review the PhD dissertations that students prepare.
BOOM IN PHD PROGRAMMES: 1,000 PROGRAMMES, 25,000 STUDENTS
According to Ohec, there are now at least 1,000 PhD programmes being offered at a total of 33 Thai universities.
Mr Supat said the number of enrolled PhD students in Thailand ballooned to over 25,000 last year, up more than 18-fold from 1,380 in 2008 (which is an over 1700% increase: (25,000 - 1380) / 1380).
MOTIVE: PHD PROGRAMMES OPENED TO MAKE MONEY
"I think some universities clearly started offering the courses to make money rather than producing PhD graduates to meet the country's needs," he added.
The Ohec chief said those universities found to be providing substandard courses will be temporarily barred from recruiting new students to the programme until the problem is fixed.
The possibility of solving the problem through long-term recruitment of foreign PhDs to organize and teach in Thai PhD programmes from countries with a surplus of PhDs, such as Korea, is perhaps not possible due to immigration restrictions.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1234334/8-of-17-phd-courses-below-par
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