The rector of Thammasat University (TU), Assoc Prof Gasinee Witoonchart, was recently selected as a fellow and honorary and life-long member of the European Foundation for Management Education (EFMD).
She is the one and only honorary member from the Southeast Asia region.
EFMD is a global non-profit organisation, famous for its "EQUIS" accreditation which is acknowledged as a determining factor for the ranking of business schools.
Fellows are selected based on their contributions to advancing business knowledge and management education.
"It is certainly an honour to be selected as an EFMD fellow because EFMD only selects executives from universities and business corporates that have the potential to work in a global network. Being a fellow will allow me and TU to work more closely with other world-leading universities in improving business knowledge and curriculums for students," Assoc Prof Gasinee said.
Working with EFMD enables her to exchange knowledge with top universities and keep abreast with trends in business education and the business world, she said.
Business schools around the world are entering the era of partnership and student exchange programmes.
Thammasat University, for instance, has formed partnerships and exchange programmes with universities in France, Austria, Italy and China.
"Each year we send more than 200 students to these universities through the exchange programmes and we are trying to increase the number," she said.
Assoc Prof Gasinee said TU is now aiming to rank among the world's top 300 universities in terms of academic reputation.
The university was listed in the 561-570 band for academic reputation released by UK-based education and career consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) recently, improving from the 651-700 band last year.
"We plan to form more partnerships with world-leading universities to upgrade ourselves. I believe this will also help to improve our ranking on a global scale," she said.
She said she believed that Thai universities in the near future will not only compete with their Thai counterparts but will face more competition from foreign institutions.