Grad
Schools in Thailand
by Scott
Hipsher
Scott
Hipsher is an English Teacher with TOEFL certification living and working
in
Bangkok, Thailand; he is also attending Bangkok University enrolled in
their MBA
program. Scott wrote an article on teaching in Bangkok which appeared in
the Vol. 2
Issue5. Since then, he's been inundated with email correspondence
asking for more
information. This article attempts to answer many of those questions
while going into more
detail about the individual schools and programs at Thai universities. |
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Additional
Resources
Studying Abroad 
Living in Thailand
Contact Scott Hipsher
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Do you ever dream about doing something
completely different in an exotic location but your practical side
prevents you from taking the plunge? Would you be interested in advancing
your career while enjoying a completely different culture even if your
bank account isn’t exactly bulging? Have you every thought about pursuing
an advanced degree in a foreign country? If this sounds like something
you might be interested in, then please check out the previous article
“Back to School in Bangkok." (see bottom for additional resources)
Since writing that piece I have received
numerous responses asking questions and wanting further information on
the idea. If you have e-mailed and didn’t receive a reply, please
accept my apologies. Since many people have asked similar questions and
it has become very time consuming to answer each person individually, I
will try to answer the most common questions here.
Assumption University
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How much does it cost to live in Bangkok
and what types of employment are available?
The most common occupation for native English
speakers is teaching. Joel Barnard does a far better job of answering
this question than I could ever do in his article, “An Introduction to
Living and Teaching in Bangkok." It is really a very well written
article that would be a useful guide for anyone interested in moving to
Thailand for any reason. As far as other types of jobs, it is |
possible to land a job in your field of expertise,
but very difficult to do from a distance. Unless one is beingsent
here by the company or organization the individual is already working for,
the chance of the average person living thousands of miles away landing
a high-paying job in Bangkok before moving to Thailand is very slim.
Many people move here, start out teaching English while looking for something
else.
The average age of a full-time MBA grad
student in Europe and the USA is about 25. What is it in Thailand?
While it is not very common to see undergraduate
students many years removed from high school, there are a number of “older”
students in their late 30s (like me) in the graduate schools. This
is especially true in the evening programs where almost all of the students
hold full-time jobs. Unless you truly are getting up in years, you won’t
feel ancient, and what is wrong with being around a lot of younger people
anyway?
Students at my Business School are predominantly
Thai. Is it easy to become close to the Thais, or do the international
students tend to stick together?
The other international students in Bangkok
University’s MBA program come from Vietnam, China, Japan, India, and Equatorial
Guinea, so we really don’t have any more in common with each other than
we do with the Thai students. Maybe there are a few more “farang” students
at the other universities, but I doubt you will find any university with
a large number of American, Australian or European Students.
For the most part, the Thais are very friendly
and inclusive and unless an individual has a phobia about being the only
white or black face in a room there shouldn’t be any problems. Neither
myself, a Caucasian, nor the other non-Asian in my class, an African Gentleman,
have ever been made to feel like we didn’t belong. Naturally, unless you
speak fluent Thai, you will be left out of some conversations and activities
at the university. To say a non-Asian student is treated exactly
like everyone else may be overstating the case a little, but unless you
are extremely sensitive you shouldn’t worry about being accepted by the
other students. I know I’m repeating the stereotype by saying the Thais
are friendly, but it is true.
Can a degree from an Asian business
school increase your value on the labor market
outside of Asia (Europe or the USA)?
If any Human Resources professionals are
reading this I would love to hear their thoughts on this. My gut
reaction would have to be probably not. Experts claim that you will
be lucky if your resume or CV gets more than a minute of the hiring manager’s
time. A hiring manager in the USA knows how to classify an MBA from
an elite school, a top public school, a lesser known regional university,
or even a diploma mill, but what would a hiring manager think when he or
she came across a resume with an MBA from Chulalongkorn University on it?
My guess is the manager would have no idea of its worth and ignore the
resume and unless there were only a few candidates wouldn’t spend the time
to find out that most of the professors at Chulalongkorn’s Sasin Business
School come from Wharton and Kellogg, two of the finest B-schools in the
USA. Others claim that the only real value you get from an MBA is
the contacts you make. I doubt an individual would meet anyone in
a school in Bangkok that would be of much help in advancing one’s career
in Walla Walla, Washington or Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Chulalongkorn University
Fine and Applied Arts Program
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What graduate degree do univerities
in Thailand offer?
The following is a partial list of schools
and programs in Thailand. I have restricted the list to graduate
level programs taught in English. Many of the same universities also
offer undergraduate programs in English, and obviously if you want and
are able to study in Thai there are far more choices. While I have
attempted to provide accurate information, individuals should check out
for themselves the programs that are of interest to them in order to get
the best information. |
Assumption University (ABAC)
Assumption is a very respected local university
that offers both day and evening/weekend programs. ABAC has Doctoral
Programs in Philosophy as well as Computer Science. It also has Graduate
Schools of Business, Computer Information Systems, Arts, Tourism Management,
Science and Technology, Engineering and Education that offer a variety
of different Master Degrees. ABAC is one of the more internally recognized
schools in Thailand.
Bangkok University
BU has both an MBA and Masters of Communication
Arts evening program. BU also has a Doctoral Program in Business
Administration in partnership with the University of Nebraska and a Doctoral
Program in Communications in partnership with Ohio University. Both
programs require two years of study in Bangkok with one year in the USA.
The programs and workloads (Master Degrees) are geared towards working
adults. Currently they are charging 3000 Baht a semester hour plus
additional fees in the MBA and MACA programs. So 48 semester hours
would cost 144,000 Baht with around another 60-80,000 Baht in fees and
books. You would pay roughly US $5,000 at current exchange rates
for your degree. BU is a respected private university, which employs
many foreign professors as well as many part-time instructors from other
universities. It’s a nice place.
Chiang Mai University
If you would prefer to live outside of
Bangkok, Chiang Mai University offers a few programs in English.
CMU has issues Doctoral Degrees in Nursing, Geology, Physics, Chemistry,
and Materials Science as well as Master Degrees in Health Science, Agricultural
Systems, Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Development. CMU
would appear to be a good choice if you would be interested in a career
with an NGO.
Chulalongkorn University
Chula is one of the two most respected
universities in Thailand, and has a number of degree programs including:
PhD in Economics, Master Degrees in Health Economics, Environmental and
Natural Resources Economics, Business and Managerial Economics, International
Economics and Finance, Petroleum Engineering, Engineering Management, Manufacturing
Systems Engineering, and European Studies. The University also offers a
number of “certificate” programs including an Intensive Language program
for people who would like to learn to speak, read and write Thai at a fairly
high level. Chula has two programs that may be of special interest to foreigners.
The first is its MA program in Thai Studies. It is taught in English
and addresses many aspects of life in Thailand. This sounds like
a very interesting program but I’m not so sure how marketable this degree
would be outside of Asian Studies Academia. The other program is
the MBA program at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration.
This program is a partnership between Chulalongkorn, Wharton Business School,
and Kellogg Business School. In this program you would basically
be getting the same professors and education as you would at one of the
elite universities in the USA at a small fraction of the cost. The
university estimates that tuition and fees would total 366,000 Baht for
the entire program (That might pay for half a semester at Wharton or Kellogg).
This program is really for full-time students with classes taking place
during the day and a heavier workload than at most other universities.
Kasetsart University
Another respected university in Bangkok,
KU offers 3-year PhD’s in Tropical Agriculture (221,000B), Forestry (221,000B)
and Biotechnology (231,000B). KU has 2-year Master Degree programs
in Aquaculture (162,000B), Agricultural Economics (170,000B), Civil Engineering
(255,000B), Tropical Agriculture (157,000B), Forestry (170,000B), Biotechnology
(166,000B), MBA (670,000B), Development Communications (219,000B) and Industrial
Engineering (506,300B).
Thammasat University
The other of the two most prestigious
universities in Thailand has Doctoral Programs in Economics Marketing,
Business Administration and Engineering/Technology. Thammasat has
Master Degree programs in Civil Engineering, Economics, and Engineering/Technology.
Thammasat has different prices for foreign students than those for Thais.
National Institute of Development Administration
(NIDA)
NIDA has an international MBA program
that costs less than 500,000 Baht, They have some other programs but I’m
not sure which ones are in English and which ones are taught in Thai.
There may be other programs out there that
I don’t know about, if you are truly interested spend a little time surfing
the net and see what you can find. If you want to know specifics
about how to apply and such, please check with the university that you
want to attend. However if you have questions about “what’s it like going
to school in Bangkok” feel free to drop me a line or two at scotta@loxinfo.co.th
Article Shelf:
Back to School in Bangkok by Scott
Hipsher - Click
Here -
An Introduction to Living and Teaching
in Bangkok by Joel Barnard - Click
Here -
Thailand Universities:
Assumption University - Click
Here -
Bangkok University - Click
Here -
Chiang Mai University - Click
Here -
Chulalongkorn University -
Click
Here -
Kasetsart University - Click
Here -
Thammasat University - Click
Here -
National Institute of Development Administration
- Click Here -
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