Only one Thai university in top 400

[PeteC]

Only one Thai uni in top 400

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/3 ... ld-top-400

Published: 4/10/2012 at 08:31 PM
Online news: Local News

Only one Thai university has made it into a list of the top 400 leading institutions of higher learning in the world.

King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) is placed in the 350-400 band in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2012-2013.

Mahidol University was ranked in the same band with KMUTT in the 2011-2012 influential education rankings report, but failed to retain its spot this year.

The Times used 13 performance indicators to evaluate more than 700 universities including research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The University of Tokyo was the highest-ranked Asian university at 27th, ahead of National University of Singapore (29) and University of Hong Kong (35).

According to the rankings, the top 10 universities in the world are the California Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, Stanford University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of California, Berkeley and University of Chicago.

A closer analysis of the rankings, however, showed many US and British institutions losing ground in contrast to Asia.

Universities in China, Singapore, Taiwan and especially South Korea witnessed a surge in performance in what was described as evidence of a power shift from the West to the East.

Dirk Van Damme, head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said: "Academic excellence is gradually shifting away from the 20th-century centres. The US and the UK still dominate the absolute summit, but they face a severe loss of total position in the top 200 list."

The ranking system warned of Britain slipping into global mediocrity within a generation due to funding cuts, higher tuition fees and rising global competition.

"Outside the golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge, England's world-class universities face a collapse into global mediocrity," Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education rankings, said.

"Huge investment in top research universities across Asia is starting to pay off. And while the sun rises in the East, England faces a perfect storm," he added.

[GLCQuantum]

Surprised one even made it to be honest.

Until they, as a country, realise that a 'no fail' policy is utter bollocks there will be no step forward in regards to education. The 'no fail' policy assures that laziness is rewarded with degrees and commendations. From an early age Thai's realise they can do whatever the feck they like at school because 'Hey, I'm gonna pass anyway'.

This in turn filters into the workplace upon graduating. Consequenses are seldom heard of. Hard graft is seldom rewarded. Financial standing has always been and will always be all that matters.

[Spitfire]

Yes, amazing even one of them made it in.

Quite right with the above about the 'no fail' policy and many see it as no different than going into a 7-11 and buying a pack of crisps.....you hand over the money and you get your product. Guess it's a consequence of having so many private family businesses in the education field, i.e colleges/universities/high schools run by a croaky old couple/prehistoric nun or 'sister of the cloth' that grew up in the post WWII Thailand and not run by a board of governors.

Only thing that needs modernizing as much as the education system here......is the SRT.