Professor Bundhit Eua-aporn has a lot on his plate. As the newly appointed Chulalongkorn University President, he is not only at the helm of the country's most respected educational institution, but a rich landlord in a prime location in Bangkok. Over the next four years (eight if he gets extended), there will be an overwhelming number of goals and concerns -- academic, economic and everything in between -- that he has to quickly act on.
"The saying that Chula is number one, Chula is proud, Chula is amazing -- we have to forget all that," says the youthful-looking president, sitting on a large sofa in his spacious reception room.
"We have to admit the truth -- that we're not dominating the Thai market anymore. And especially within the international market, Chula and other Thai universities keep slipping down in terms of ranking."
As the oldest and most prestigious public university in Thailand, Chulalongkorn is still the higher-education institute that Thai students all over the country spend endless, stressful nights cramming in order to get enrolled. It's a university that evokes pride and automatically confers status to its students and often their families. But Chula is No.1 only in the domestic leagues, its academic performance not as stellar in an international context. In 2015, it fell a whopping 52 places from 2012 on the QS World University Ranking index. A report just came out on Wednesday revealing that Chula has bounced back eight places and now is ranked as the 245th-best university in the world, while 45th in Asia. The top five in Asia are universities from Singapore, Hong Kong and China. Among Thai universities, Chula has been ranked first for the past five years.
With next year marking Chulalongkorn's 100th anniversary, Bundhit is aiming to move the institution in a different, forward direction while maintaining its roots as Thailand's leading source of knowledge. Bundhit's vision of Chulalongkorn is for it to become the national university at a global level, aiming for knowledge and innovation in all areas, from the sciences to the arts, to develop, support and enhance Thai society to become more sustainable. The president wants to create an enriching environment not only for the students, but for the masses as well. Chula, he believes, should reach out more to the public.
But if the university aims to bounce back and function as a true leading organisation, it needs three main elements: talented people, abundant resources, and a fluid management system -- all of which right now are at acceptable standards, but still peppered with issues.
In terms of talent, Chula, though already attracting the top students in the country, must start attracting the true crème de la crème again.
"The competition in higher-level education is huge," he says. "The race to acquire top, talented students is very high, so if we don't do anything, we'll lose students. We're not only competing against universities in Thailand anymore. If we still think the game is in Thailand, we'll collapse." More and more students are now going abroad for their higher education, Bundhit says.
"What does this mean? It means that the strength of Chula, which is the representative of the country, isn't getting better. We're actually getting worse. I'm speaking in terms of the response from the market. There are many indicators. If we look at Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and China, less locals are studying abroad compared to 50 years ago."
Secondly, in terms of abundant resources, Chula, viewed by some as a crash-grabbing, money-hungry institute due to its real estate business and some underdeveloped and costly international programmes, actually doesn't have enough funds to truly develop itself. The mass reclamation of buildings and land plots around Sam Yan has inspired much debate about the role of Chula as an educational institute as well as a real estate developer -- two roles that seem at odds, to say the least -- not to mention its expanding investment in the Siam Square area.
Bundhit said that when King Rama VI gave the land to build the university, he foresaw that Bangkok would grow. Chulalongkorn is lucky to own land in one of the most expensive areas and to be able to use it to support its expansion.
"Chula is rich, I don't deny that," says Bundhit. "But it's like a parent who has many children, resulting in many expenses. People view it in only one dimension: that Chula is rich, not that we have expenses as well. Chula is seen as using land to create revenue, but in reality it's still not enough."
Currently, 30% of Chula's funding comes from the government, another 30% from real estate, and 20% from tuition fees. The majority of the funds goes to staff salary, and the rest to keep the university operating. This results in not enough funds for the institution to grow and invest in new resources.
With an insufficiency in finances, professors then end up chasing after the remaining 10% from outside ministries and organisations, resulting in less freedom in the curriculum, as they must teach what that particular ministry or organisation asks them to.
"Society doesn't know that education takes a lot of money," he continues. "If we get two times the amount of money we're getting now, we still won't be able to catch up [to other international universities]. We have 10 billion [baht per year] now. An MRI machine costs almost 100 million for the Faculty of Medicine. These are all expenses that people outside don't know about. No one talks about these things."
Currently, Bundhit has been collecting data on funding and expenses from leading Asian universities, and will eventually present the numbers to the university's council. He also says he'll look at how certain faculties manage their money, in order to fully strengthen the university as a whole.
But the worst problem that Chula is facing, according to Bundhit, is its bureaucratic-minded system. As the university is partially a government organisation, there's a deep-rooted bureaucratic system making it difficult for them to change their ways.
"When you're a professor or a government officer, you do things process-based, not resource-based," he says. "You don't have results? We can't fire you. Because as long as you come in at 8am and leave at 5pm, you can't be fired. Some professors really have it easy. They teach but don't get results."
Thankfully, Bundhit is trying to turn the page. In this transition period, professors are starting to have performance evaluations, with evaluations for results. Now, if PhD professors teach from three to seven years without any redeeming outcomes, their contract will be terminated.
"But these changes can't happen fast," says Bundhit. "If we talk about it today and apply it tomorrow, there will be so many people fired."
With Chula facing numerous problems, from deep-rooted bureaucracy to insufficient funding (the two massive phenomena that have continually dragged the institution down), Bundhit will have to find ways to adapt and develop the institution. His plan is to focus on the rising mega-trends and issues in Thai society, especially those the West would be interested in.
One mega-trend he's choosing to focus on, the ageing society, will get people in all different faculties involved. Coming from an electrical engineering background, Bundhit says he can work on special monitors, while medical students can work on biomedicine, and architecture students can work on smart cities.
"And we've done it," he says. "Chula is probably the only university that has innovations to show. We don't have to wait for the government; we're able to do it ourselves because of our students. It also creates opportunities for businesses and so much more. So whenever we innovate something, they'll benchmark it and refer it to us, so we'll increase the ranks naturally. However, we have to be sharp. We have to choose the right thing."
With so many issues to solve, we can only wish Bundhit the best of luck with his new position.
"There are many, many challenges waiting for us," he says. "And if we're not able to adjust in time with a world that's quickly changing, we'll keep falling backwards." And that, we know as much as he does, would be a national shame.
