A new system of enrolling university students will be launched in two years to eliminate direct admissions by individual universities, criticised as being costly and unfair to applicants.
The decision to implement the new system in the 2018 academic year was reached at a top-level meeting of the Office of the Higher Education Commission and representatives of universities nationwide Thursday. The meeting was chaired by Education Minister Dapong Ratanasuwan.
The landmark decision aims to scrap the current system where universities arrange their own entrance exams and admit students directly.
Critics and students have complained that direct admission gives unfair advantages to richer applicants who can afford to travel to many universities in and outside of Bangkok to sit for the exams and pay the associated application fees.
When the exam results are announced, applicants enrol in the more competitive universities and abandon places they have secured in other universities, leaving many empty seats to be filled.
Emerging from Thursday's meeting, education permanent secretary Kamchorn Tatiyakawee said the meeting took note of the problems with the system and resolved to change it.
In the new system, applicants who are at least Mathayom 6 graduates will take a central university entrance exam scheduled sometime after the middle of March each year.
The applicants will sit for the usual GAT/PAT technical tests as well as the national nine core subject examinations, a process which takes six to eight weeks. In between, no universities will be permitted to organise their own exams to admit students directly.
Dr Kamchorn said that after the exam results are announced, students will use the scores they receive to apply to faculties and universities of their choice. They are allowed up to four choices.
Universities will notify applicants whether they have been accepted or how many places are available through a clearing house.
If applicants are not satisfied with the result and wish to re-apply in the second round of applications, they are free to do so, provided the universities of their choice still have places.
If the applicants win placement in the first round and decide to enrol, they will be barred from re-applying in the second round, the education permanent secretary said.
Dr Kamchorn said under the new system applicants will be informed of their scores, giving them a clear idea of how competitive they are against other applicants.
"This system basically lets the applicants go through a single, central exam and their scores can be used to seek placements in two rounds," he said.
The direct university admission system will be phased out in the future.
He said the new system will be similar in part to the abolished central university entrance exam in which successful applicants were allocated a place in one of the faculties of their choice.
The applicants did not know their scores, unlike under the new system where they receive the score which they themselves must submit to the universities to consider whether they will be accepted or not.
The permanent secretary said after the new system is implemented, some universities may be permitted to open direct admissions if they still have vacant seats left after two rounds of central admissions via the clearing house.