When the new term starts this August, Chulalongkorn University students will be witnessing more tangible, digital developments taking shape as the "pillar of the nation" edges towards its ambitions of producing more worldly students and digitised resources. Now two years into his administration as president of the university, Professor Bundhit Eua-Aporn is continuing onward with his "CU Transformation" and the fruits of his plans are starting to take shape.
Set to launch this autumn will be CU Nex, an application and smartcard which will serve as a single portal for students to do everything: from registering for courses, paying tuition fees, asking for transcripts and receiving customised news feeds down to paying for food at the canteens. The one-stop database, created with Kbank, will shift the campus population towards a more digital lifestyle and cash-free environment.
Already up and running, however, are two other initiatives. The online learning website, Chula MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), is currently offering approximately 100 topics that anyone can apply to learn -- and all for free. From Basic Russian, Law for Business to Products for an International Market, the range of topics offered from various faculties can be of practical use for real life.
"People who come study with us don't have to be our students only anymore," explains Professor Bundhit. Currently, approximately 40,000 users are enrolled and the goal is to eventually reach out to 1 million. "With the technology we have, we are offering the opportunity of being a student to anyone. When they pass the course, they can just print out their certificate. MOOC is transforming Chulalongkorn students to anyone and connecting to the public."
Connecting to the public and returning to society more are marked high up on Bundhit's agenda.
"We always talk about being the pillar of the nation. So we've given education back to society, but we need to learn from society too. We want Chula to be closer to society. Research must not only be done in labs. We must go out to talk to society and connect to the private sector in order to listen about what they need or want, because what we want and what society wants may be different. We need to go learn about what they want, in order to create impact. That takes time, but we need to modernise too and not be lost in history."
Co-working spaces, such as the one at CU Innovation Hub, or start-ups at the Engineering Faculty have come to fruition to offer a platform for students, professors and alumni to work together, but at Siam Square, Siam Innovation District is also open to the wider public.
"We really want to contribute to innovation," says Bundhit, who comes from an engineering background himself, and did not get to revel in start-up clubs back in his day.
Siam Innovation District is located at Siam Square but still has yet to be fully used. photos courtesy of Chulalongkorn University
Under his administration, new subjects that foster curiosity, beyond just studying for grades, have come up.
"There's subjects like Muggle Physics, Chinese For Business and Design Thinking -- more choices for the students," Bundhit lists. "We want them to learn because they are curious and also encourage professors to not just stick to their faculties. If they cross more, it's for the better because new things will be created."
With more flexibility enhanced in course registration, students today can study across faculties with less hindrances, unlike in the past.
CU Nex is a single portal created with Kbank.
"Or even with going to camps or working with villagers in the summer," adds the president. "Some want to go but are concerned about their summer courses so we changed it that going to camp brings in credits too. It won't just be helping society for 'nothing' but all in all, there should be many dimensions to a student, not just studying anyway."
Under Bundhit's vision, all new entering students must also take a personality test, in order to measure their strengths, weaknesses and aptitudes.
"This is what I call a personal education for all students," he explains. "So they know themselves and what they want to improve in. Our courses are becoming more tailored and customised because in reality, not everyone studies at the same speed. With this, we can customise courses for individuals even more."
More flexibility, freedom and variety has been implemented in the courses, but for students to become worldly citizens and well-adapted to the global changes of the 21st century, it is still sending students abroad on exchanges that must be done.
"We need to admit that Thai kids have low exposure to international environments compared to Singaporean, Malaysian or Hong Kong kids," he says. "When they have less chances to see, their thinking capacities can only be limited to a local level. It's a policy to send them out for exchanges or internships, as well as to have them interact with exchange students here too. But we can only send a few hundred every year while universities like National University of Singapore send 5,000 out, all of the which the university or government pays for. But for us, if we did that, we wouldn't have money to do anything else!"
Funding is largely the main roadblock to more rapid development and other world-class institutions receive no less than 10 times more funding than Thai universities do, according to Bundhit. He explains that this greatly affects world rankings where although Chulalongkorn may be ranked first in the country, it's standing at 245 on the QS World University Rankings 2018. CU is among the best 50 universities in Asia, while Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore took the top best two.
A user looking through courses available on MOOC.
"The difference in investment money is staggering. It's things like the number of international students and faculty on campus too that affects the rankings -- but who would come without the scholarship money? And who would teach here at a starting salary of 35,000 baht when they have a PhD? Singapore pays the same, but in dollars, so it's very hard to attract international talents to come to live and work here."
Even if Thailand is far behind its Asian counterparts, Bundhit expects to see his initiatives and projects running at full steam by the time his term ends in two years. But whether things turn out for the better immediately or not, his eyes are not fixed on rankings at all -- not locally at least. He compares rankings to different sorts of mirrors, where each has its own dimensions that may or may not flatter the person looking in. Take the example of a communications faculty judged by the number of published research papers in the media and how they would suffer greatly, compared to the same stipulation placed on a medicine faculty. This reflects how Mahidol University was ranked as the first in Thailand on the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
"I've talked to the management on Mahidol's side before and to compete within ourselves is an embarrassment," he stresses. "Especially when us two, out of the 30 at conventions abroad, are probably the ones placed at 28 and 29. In the overall big picture, Thai universities are still very low on the list. If I want to compete, I don't want to compete with others here, my benchmark is with the international ones."
