Conflict won't stop uni students graduating, says OHEC

Yesterday, a group of Assumption University professors and students yesterday handed a petition to Education Minister General Dapong Rattanasuwan and OHEC secretary-general Pinit Ratanakul at the Education Ministry after the committee conflict led to a disruption in granting students graduation status.

“ABAC [the university’s former name] new graduates should not be worried because their graduation status is directly granted by the university and they should be assured that they will be able to attend their graduation ceremony, as even if the university committee meeting cannot be held, it can send a circular notice to every committee member to approve the [graduation] certificates,” Pinit said.

He said that even though there was still a conflict over the legitimacy of the head of committee board, the head still had legitimacy for now, so the new graduates would received their certificates.

A representative of the university, Weersak Anusonthiwong, a university committee member, said that due to the absence of many committee members at the September 17 meeting – the result of the internal conflict – the university could not approve the graduation certificates. 

More than 3,000 new graduates are scheduled to attend the graduation ceremony on November 22, but it is feared that without the committee approving it, there will be no ceremony.

Weersak asked the Education Ministry and the OHEC to solve the conflict.

Ploypailin Luoploynak, the university’s student association president, said she was quite sure the graduation ceremony would go ahead but she and fellow new graduates wanted a guarantee it would.

“The conflict in the university committee makes the students feel unsure about the university and they want the conflict brought to an end soon,” Ploypailin said.

Dapong said the ministry had no authority over the university because it was a private institution but he would let Pinit talk with the committee members in a bid to find a resolution.