Call for AIT to solve its student, degree

Meanwhile, AIT students and alumni yesterday expressed their joy after a meeting on Wednesday resolved that the former Board of Trustees appointed under the institute’s old charter would reconvene to confer degrees upon graduates, including those who received degrees under the new AIT charter earlier this year. The status of those degrees had been in doubt, as the new charter has not yet been ratified by Parliament. 

Thanin Bumrungsap, president of Thailand’s AIT Alumni Association, said that although the president agreed with the meeting to solve the degree problem, the alumni would continue to pressure him to step down before the end of his tenure in June next year. Thanin claimed the president had caused many other problems for AIT, especially having to do with his management, so he should be held responsible for this. 

In an open letter to the AIT community and stakeholders, Prof Said Irandoust urged all governing institutions, the Foreign Ministry, the Office of Higher Education Commission and the AIT Council to solve the problems facing AIT students and the community.

In a letter written on December 11, Irandoust requested the ministry formally call a one-off session of the former AIT Board to address the two issues of reaffirmation of the validity of AIT degrees and the release of government flood-rehabilitation funds and student scholarship funds.

The president regretted that AIT today is increasingly divided and inward looking. He suggested the need to rebuild and recapitalise the institute, in an era when many donors are seeking to disengage themselves from it.

He also regretted that the new AIT charter had caused so much division, “particularly among those fearful of a change from what had been an unsustainable status quo”.

Stating that it is time to move forward, the president said that while his tenure will come to an end on June 30, it is imperative the ministry and the AIT Council come together and expedite the transition to a new president and leadership team, untainted by recent disharmony and discord. He suggested a formal start begin for a search for a new AIT president.

The president also urged the ministry and the AIT Council to make public and settle substantive allegations against all parties. He hoped that the future AIT would not be simply an attempt to recreate the past, but one that would attract the support of students, governments and stakeholders from Asia and beyond.

The entire text of the AIT president’s letter in English and Thai can be read at: http://www.ait.ac.th/news-and-events/2012/news/an-open-letter-from-ait-president-prof-said-irandoust/view.