Everything is just about ready to go at Shinawatra University’s Pathum Thani site for its planned opening this September. The undergraduate programme will be housed there while the MBA programme will operate out of Bangkok. |
You probably haven’t heard much about the brand-new Shinawatra University. That is likely to change very quickly in the coming weeks and months.
Under regulations of the Ministry of University Affairs (MUA), the university is not allowed to operate, advertise or otherwise call attention to itself until its curriculum has been formally approved by the ministry. That process is in its final stages and, assuming approval is forthcoming, Shinawatra University should soon be very much in the public eye.
In fact, it will have to be. Both Shinawatra’s undergraduate and graduate (MBA) programmes are scheduled to open in September, leaving very little time to recruit its faculty and first intake of students.
The rush to open will be somewhat out of character for a university that prides itself on meticulous preparation. The brainchild of Thailand’s prime minister Dr Thaksin Shinawatra and several of his close associates, little has been left to chance.
 Dr Sangsant Panich |
"Everything at this university," says acting president Dr Sangsant Panich, "if you ask why, we have the answer. It hasn’t come about because we haven’t thought about it first."
The founders have thought longest and hardest about the type of university they want. Above all, says Dr Sangsant, they want a university whose graduates have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to thrive in today’s increasingly technological and knowledge-driven economy.
Shinawatra graduates, he says, will be mature, responsible, well rounded and prepared for life-long learning, precisely the qualities business leaders in Thailand often say are lacking in the graduates they hire. The emphasis on business is no coincidence as the new university is openly and unashamedly focused on serving the private sector.
Private sector focus
 Dr Olarn Chaipravat |
Four years in the planning, Shinawatra University has had a close collaboration with local and international businesses from the outset. It’s business orientation is also clearly evidenced in Dr Thaksin’s choice for the university’s new chairman, Dr Olarn Chaipravat, the prominent MIT-trained economist, former bank chairman and current key advisor to Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.
"Dr Thaksin," says Dr Olarn, "just gave me a very brief mandate. He wanted me to make this university different. Actually, the word that he used in Thai had a meaning like ‘out of this world’. I interpreted that to be ‘innovative’.
One of the key innovations that Dr Olarn and the founders want to implement is to make the university into a "learning organisation", a concept closely associated with well known MIT professor Peter Senge.
"A learning organisation," says Dr Olarn "is an organisation that can adjust and be ahead of the business requirements in the industry in which it is working. It is an organisation that has to look ahead to the future and change itself before anybody else in the field does. A traditional organisation is reactive. It only changes when it is absolutely necessary."
According to Dr Olarn, Shinawatra University planners employed the learning organisation concept in setting the undergraduate curriculum. Traditional curriculum planning, he says, often involves seeking out models from famous universities such as Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford.
"But we think that the traditional approach forgets about the requirements of the people of the business firms who are going to employ the graduates from our university.
"Being a technology and business-oriented university," Dr Olarn says, "we need to know from day one what the private industry would like our graduates to do. Then we structure our curriculum in such a way that when these people leave our university, they will be able to work effectively with the private institutions."
On the cutting edge
The university’s meditation centre with rice fields in the background. |
Shinawatra University undergraduates will have a relatively narrow choice of five fields of study, including business administration in management, computer science, software engineering, telecommunications engineering and built environment.
If the university’s campus and buildings in rural Pathum Thani are any indication, the built environment curriculum is going to be an instant winner. Prominent "green" architect Dr Soontorn Boonyatikarn and his team have constructed what must be one of the most imaginative facilities in Asia, if not the world.
Built environment is a new field combining architecture, technology and environmental awareness to construct eco-friendly facilities suited to the human activities taking place there. Already, Dr Soontorn and his associates are staking a claim to be among the foremost experts in built environments suited to hot and humid climates.
The design of the site itself is based on the principle of "micro-climate modification" aimed at reducing temperatures to a comfortable level. This includes the use of natural vegetation and bodies of water, minimising the amount of hard-top surfaces, and reducing the footprint of buildings by using a circular design.
Bursting with pride, Dr Soontorn Boonyatikarn shows off some of the innovations in the main building. Behind him is Dr Kanittha Navarat, the acting director of International Affairs. |
Unlike most other large buildings in Thailand which have been inspired by cold-weather construction techniques, the buildings at Shinawatra University are designed specifically for central Thailand’s torrid climate. The buildings’ outer coverings, or "envelopes", consist of specially designed materials which dramatically reduce electricity consumption, saving an estimated 50 million baht per year over conventional designs. Allergy suffers will be interested to know that the design minimises the fungal and mould growth that plague so many other buildings in the tropics.
In addition, the buildings are designed to make maximum use of natural lighting. Building acoustics are state of the art and eliminate the need for microphones, even in large lecture halls. The air flow is carefully controlled to avoid irritating the eyes.
Above all, the design is intended to promote the university’s philosophy of collaborative learning and to foster a sense of community. The main building deliberately brings everyone together, housing both the administration and all the classrooms. "You cannot escape anybody in this university," says Dr Sangsant. "You have to be friends with them. All the disciplines are under one roof so they know each other. This is unlike other universities where the engineers might be housed in a different campus as would the social sciences."
One of the centres of social interaction will be the skylink which connects the main building with the canteen, laboratory and dormitories. There, says Dr Soontorn, students can sit down, lay down, chitchat and since it will be wired, they can plug in their laptops and check out the stock market if they so desire. The skylink will also feature TV and ATM machines.
Academic programme
The person in charge of bringing the undergraduate curriculum to life is coordinator Dr Sangrawee Chaopricha. Her intial focus has been on setting the course requirements for each of the five major fields offered and gaining approval from the MUA.
There is a curriculum drafting committee for each field, all chaired by acknowledged experts. Dr Kanchit Malaivongs heads the software engineering committee. Computer science is chaired by Dr Sawat Saengbangpla, telecommunications engineering by Dr Tawanwong Krairojananan, built environment by Dr Soontorn Boonyatikarn and business administration by Dr Pol Narongdej.
Dr Sangrawee says that the committees have completed their first drafts and they have all been submitted to the MUA. They are now fine-tuning the programmes on the advice of MUA representatives and, if all goes as anticipated, final approval is imminent.
Shinawatra University undergraduates will be required to pass a minimum of 133 credits over their four years, 39 in general education and at least 84 credits in their chosen fields. Fees will be 4,000 baht per credit, competitive with other technologically-oriented private universities in Thailand. The intake, she says, will be seventy students in each field, making the first year total 350.
Like all Shinawatra University administrators, Dr Sangrawee promises an innovative programme which differs significantly from most other universities. First of all, students in the first two years will be required to live on campus in keeping with the aim of creating a tight, socially cohesive community. Since the aim is to recruit students from throughout the region, this community should also be a culturally diverse one. All coursework will be in English.
Much the learning, she says, will be project based – often in cooperation with major corporations like the telecommunications giant Ericsson and, of course, Dr Thaksin’s own Shin Corporation. Discussion, rather than lecture will be the preferred format.
Dr Sangsant is particularly enthusiastic about two aspects of the undergraduate programme which he says will set it apart from all others. First, he says, the university will offer students a "contract" which will guarantee they will have certain carefully specified competencies upon completion of any course or level.
Secondly, there is the programme in entrepreneurship. The hope is that up to 20 percent of the university’s graduates will eventually be able to set up their own businesses. Joe Sweeney, a New Zealand entrepreneur, has been hired as consultant for establishing this programme.
Challenges ahead
 Dr Donald Wilson |
In many ways, this will be a much more interesting story in a year’s time. Planning and construction, however complex and time-consuming they may be, pale in comparison to the challenge of implemention.
One of the key consultants hired to assist in this phase of the operation is Dr Donald Wilson, a special advisor to Chairman Olarn. He himself has presided over several universities and during his long career has taken part in several startups.
He is full of optimism. The facilities, he says, are second to none. "You don’t often see this kind of a facility in any country. It’s the old world and the new world, the traditional world and the very modern world. It’s not just modern Thailand. It’s the modern global world.
This he says should be a great aid in recruiting students. "We’ll even recruit from the United States," he says. "I think we’ll set up exchange programmes. This place would be very good for students to come. And the standards of living – what are you going to miss? You come from the States to this residence hall, what are you losing? Or you come from Japan, from Korea, you come from Vietnam. In many cases, it would be a step up compared to what they would have in their own local environment."
He admits, however, that the first year will be particularly challenging. "We are about six or eight months out of cycle. We should have been marketing and hiring six or eight months ago, so we’re going to have to try and short-circuit some of this."
One potential obstacle is the use of English as the medium of instruction. The planners are counting on finding students with high levels of English proficiency, but that may not be easy – especially in the first year.
Then, there is the formidable task of orienting a new and diverse faculty. Thus far, the curriculum planning has been very much top down and it remains to be seen how the professors, who can be a very independent and egotistical lot, will take what they have been given.
Dr Sangsant and his colleagues seem supremely confident that everything will work, not just for this year, but for a hundred years into the future. The university will be like a tree in a rain forest he says. It will set down deep roots and it will thrive in a harsh, ever-changing environment.
Special thanks to Dr Kanittha Navarat for making our visit a productive one. She, together with Dr Sangrawee and Dr Alongkrit Chutinan, Shinawatra University’s first faculty hire, are busy with the university’s English and computer camps. The next one takes place from June 10 to July 21. Dr Alongkrit, incidentally, is a King’s Scholar who has a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States.
terryfrd@ksc15.th.com |