Educational System in Australia episode 1

Before the end of June, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Numyoot Songthanapitak, the university president and 11 committees of university council, visited The University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University, Australia learning about council administration and work transparency. One of these two universities, especially the University of Western Australia, is very well-known in the eight of ancient reputation universities which can direct the way of business position.

Another university is Cowan University, which is in New Generation University group (NGU). It is certified in 1970. NGU group has 10 universities as their members and they have many strong relationships among themselves in term of teaching, research and community participation. Besides these, they can also response the need and members’ corporation closely to communities, businesses and government sectors.

In this visit, the visitors from RMUTT had a different talk with these two universities. One university, University of Western Australia, organized the talk like a presentation style, question and answer period, and small individual talk after meeting, meanwhile, the other one, Cowan University, had very warm welcome to the meeting room located at the third floor of their university council building. The smiling was given by an old university pubic relation officer. In this meeting, a writer had already visited here with the visit of Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University.

The guest speakers who will lecture about the topic are one of university council members and their a few staff. The topics will relate about university activities and authorization including the origin of committee members; 1 student, 2 alumni, 5 professional expertises following the university’s requirement. From the full searched data founded by Assoc. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arunee Intrapairot, RMUTT, it is given to RMUTT president, 9 professional expertise delegates and 2 university council secretariats. The professional expertise delegates from RMUTT university council are 1. university council president, Mr. Sunthorn Arunanondchai, 2. vice university council president Prof. Dr. Somchai Richupan, , 3. nine council committees (Mr.Chumpol Phornprapha, Prof. Montree Chulawattanadhon, Doctor Nipon Surapongrukchareon, Mr. Opas Kaewwichian, Professor Dr. Sermsak Wisalaporn, Dr. Manoonsri Chotitawan, Mr. Decha Deepadung, Sooboon Wuttiwong and Mr. Ruengchai Subnirandhora – the writer) and 4 two university council secretariats, Mr. Sompob petcharat and Asst. Prof. Dr. Supatara Popuang. This data reports about Australian education. Here, there will be rising up some part of overall.

Australia established the first university in 1850. The first university is The University of Sydney in New South Wales. After that, there was an establishment the University of Melbourne in Victoria and teacher’s colleges including other technical universities in different field of study in order to promote the industrial growth and mine industries.

From the previous mention to the Melbourne, it is already known that Australia has 70% of vocational colleges and 30% of academic universities. Now, there are only 39 universities including 2 private universities and excluding graduate college and Military Institute of Australia. Educational system in Australia focuses on the uniqueness and need despondence to the learners. According to this, it leads to have a difficulty to rank university. The factors influencing to study in these universities are such as courses of study, teaching principles and ethics, equipment and facilities, and studying environment.

Besides the basic education and vocational education, educational levels in Australia are divided into as following:

Graduate Diploma and Diploma

Bachelor Degree

Bachelor Degree with Honors

Graduate Certificate

Post Graduate Diploma

Master Degree

Doctoral Degree or Ph.D.

Higher educational level is the highest rank in Australia which it can be equal or higher than another universities compared to some or every university in Europe, America and Canada. Moreover, every university’s quality here is certified by Office of the Civil Service Commission OCSC of Thailand.

The difference in educational system in Australia compared to Thailand is the degree with the honor class of undergraduate students. They can study approximately 4-7 years with early adding courses of study. Who can graduate with the first class honor degree can continue to study Doctoral Degree or Ph.D without passing the master’s degree, meaning that the first class honor is certified equally to master degree. For diploma certificates, students can gain if they need to take the courses in order to increase their existing knowledge. Time spent is approximately 6 months. Some university uses the diploma certificates as evaluating courses for student who desire to study in Master’ Degree, but, their knowledge is needed to improve.

Mr. Ruengchai Subnirandhora – the writer

Translated by Mr. Suraporn Onputtha