System of direct admission blocking reform, Chaturon says
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The proportion of students enrolling in universities through the schools' direct-admissions systems must be reduced, with more students being made to enter the system through the central entrance-examination channel, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang s
While most universities were now independent after opting to remove themselves from the country’s education bureaucracy, they would still be required to follow any future Cabinet resolution requiring them to reduce their admissions quotas, he said.
Chaturon said universities’ large admissions quotas would likely result in the total failure of the ongoing education reforms. He did not elaborate.
In recent years, many universities have opted to recruit high-achieving students through their own admissions processes, in which they conduct exams and other mandatory tests on their own.
The original annual central entrance-examination channel remains open to students in general, often those with poorer grades.
Chaturon said he would prefer to see the universities show a willingness to cooperate, adding that he had assigned all relevant bureaux under the ministry to work out initial solutions with the universities on a voluntary basis to achieve his objective in the meantime.
Nation University rector Pong-in Rak-ariyatham, as head of the Admissions Forum, said a meeting would be held tomorrowSaturday to discuss the issue.
He said Chaturon’s policy needed to be discussed, while other practices, such as universities’ grading of students, must be brought under a common and transparent standard before the policy could be followed, whether voluntarily or mandated by a Cabinet resolution.
