5 ways for Thai unis to tackle population

On June 16, the Bangkok Post published an article about the future of Thai education in light of a declining population. Addressing the problems and answering the questions has been left for the next person in charge — to till the hard ground of comfort for new growth.

- Mariano Carrera

Since the 1990s (at least), Thai demographers and academics have raised the issue of declining population and education. In the 1960s, there were about 20 universities in Thailand and six children per woman. By the 1990s, that had changed to over 100 tertiary institutes and less than two children per woman. Almost any Thai high schooler, in the 2020s, can get into a university programme provided they can pay tuition.

Here are five achievable things that I believe would make Thai universities more relevant to Thai society, with a declining and ageing population.

1) Close and merge some universities and their programmes. In Bangkok, universities across the street from each other offer fundamentally the same courses. Within some universities, different lecturers teach almost identical courses at different faculties.

I believe consolidation allows for greater efficiencies and rationalisation of resources. Ironically, the benefits of partnerships are taught in the courses that are repeated across faculties. In many universities, faculties are silos with a sprinkling of external courses allowed to meet local quality standards. The overall value of education improves through being more efficient and rational.