Title: Competition versus cooperation: international programmes in Thailand's higher education
Author: Mr.Gwyn Peredur Evans
Year: 2023
Keywords: internationalisation of higher education, competition, collaboration, Thailand
Theme: Education
Advisor(s): Vong-on Phuaphansawat
The full thesis available here.
Abstract: The purpose of this thesis has been to produce meaningful understandings of how the internationalisation of higher education (IHE) takes place within public higher education institutions in Thailand, within the context of economic and social drivers. It explores the peripheral voices of actors involved in the field, adopting a social constructivist approach to identify and understand the imperatives and processes of IHE in Thailand, how they are perceived by actors at the institutions, and how their understanding, interpretations and motivations are influenced by the country’s historical and cultural context, as well as their own social environments. By examining the relationship between competition and cooperation in the internationalisation of public higher education in Thailand, it explores the extent to which, and how, actors within the public Thai higher education institution are challenging the neoliberal hegemonic discourse on IHE, and providing a counter-narrative to the Western-dominated discourse.The study provides a longitudinal analysis of the historical evolution of higher education and international programmes in Thailand before focussing on one public university as a unit of analysis and probing into three of its international programmes, using thematic analysis to draw on interview accounts of 15 respondents who work in the field of IHE.The thesis argues that the situated voices of the Global South need to be heard in order to enhance the global discourse on the internationalisation of higher education and to make it reflective of the plurality of ownerships of such knowledge creation. The study concludes that the binary question of competition and cooperation is too simplistic. The non-economic, socially-oriented beliefs, values and perspectives, and the driving of progressive and meaningful change in society are framed, or trapped, within the dominant neoliberal economic framing of the world in which the institution exists, and represents. The study reveals the actors’ critical counter-narrative to the hegemonic neoliberal discourse which normatively dictates the definitions of how this process works. The thesis makes the claim that internationalisation, within the Thai public higher education context, operates reactively and separately within an internal structure and culture which further alienate the process. It calls for a more integrated, spatially aware, self-reflexive and critical approach to IHE. The study’s findings point to the necessity of a more humane and socially driven process which sees internationalisation as a means to improve education quality and research, and to achieve a more ethical and equitable drive towards progress and growth