University President of Thailand Shuts Down the Possibility of Free University Education

President of Chulalongkorn University, Professor Bundhit Eua-Arporn, Ph.D. who is also currently the President of Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) made his comments on the demands of Equitable Education Research Institute (EEFI) who wanted to amend Law Section 44 Clause 5 of STUDENT LOAN FUND ACT, B.E. in order to cancel all debts of graduates who owed the Student Loan Fund (SLF) of more than 2 years and demand free education starting from kindergarten to university to all citizens, “Representatives of Student Loan Fund already announced that it would be impossible to forgive all debts since it is considered  irresponsible. Graduates who have financial problems unable to pay their loan debts are offered to consult with SLF. SLF is ready to help but just defaulting their debts is not right. A lot of questions will be raised from the society including why other kinds of debts could not be forgiven. I would say it is a lack of financial discipline. Dr. Bundhit continued, “In the case of all free education policy beginning from kindergarten to university, I would also say, it is just impossible since it would definitely make a hard hit on university budget allocation. For instance, from 100% university budget, we get 20% from student tuition fees and 80% are from government funds and other sources of income including research funding, rental income, etc. The money that we get from the government not only would be used for supporting students but also other matters. I truly believe that good things do not come cheap. What if the government pushes forward all free education, I would see the doom of our university.” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sommai Pivsa-Art, President of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT) and Chairman of RMUT University Presidents further added his remarks on the issue that it is a great idea for Thailand to have all free education to all citizens from kindergarten to university and right now the government offers its 15 Year Free Education Scheme covering from middle school to lower vocational level. Unfortunately, RMUTT president hoped that the scheme should covered high-school to higher vocational level as well. “I do agree that having free university education is great but it would definitely have some certain impact on education quality since most of the universities are not self-reliance, they depend on the government funds. Unless we get more funding from the government, we would not be able to promote and support our students learning efficiently. I have to disagree with the idea because free education must come with good quality. Without them we would not be capable of developing quality workforce that matches socio-economic needs of the country, added Dr. Sommai.