Mahidol aims to have defaulting lecturer declared bankrupt

Mahidol aims to have defaulting lecturer declared bankrupt

Dr Banchong Mahaisavariya, vice president of Mahidol University, speaks of the controversial scholarship defaulter at a press conference at the university in Nakhon Pathom province on Tuesday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
Dr Banchong Mahaisavariya, vice president of Mahidol University, speaks of the controversial scholarship defaulter at a press conference at the university in Nakhon Pathom province on Tuesday. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)

Mahidol University will try to have a former lecturer who defaulted on a 10-million-baht state scholarship in the US declared bankrupt in order to collect her debt.

Mahidol vice president Dr Banchong Mahaisavariya told a news conference in Nakhon Pathom province on Tuesday that the university and the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) were planning a civil lawsuit to have the former dentistry lecturer defined as a bankrupt person so it could be possible to reclaim the money from her.

He was referring to Dolrudee Jumlongras, a dental-medicine researcher at Harvard University, who completed her master's and doctoral degrees with an Ohec scholarship that required her to return to work in Thailand for at least 12 years or repay triple the face value of the grant. She never returned and has refused to pay back the loan.

While guarantors have settled her debt for 10 million baht, Dr Banchong insisted Ms Dolrudee still owned 30 million baht for the balance of the scholarship plus a fine.

Associate professor Passiri Nisalak, dean of Mahihold's dentistry faculty, said the university had many times demanded repayment from Ms Dolrudee, who resigned officially in 2004.

"The university and the faculty sent many collection letters to Dr Dolrudee's addresses both in Thailand and in the US, but she always replied that she was not ready to repay and complained that the conditions of the scholarship were unfair," Mr Passiri said.

"We also wrote to Harvard asking them to investigate the issue and consider appropriate action, but they just answered that the university was treating this case as a private matter."

The years-old case only became news over the weekend when a loan guarantor wrote about his financial hardship on Facebook and the post went viral.

According to the website of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Dr Dolrudee completed her PhD at the school in 2003. She is a senior tutor organising and managing clinical treatment teams for third- and fourth-year predoctoral students.

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