New system agreed on for students entering university from 2018

A recent meeting of the Office of Higher Education Commission and the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) agreed that in the 2018 academic year Mathayom 6 students would take one entrance exam in mid-March. 

This would give them scores for a “two house-clearing” system before sitting the General Aptitude Test (GAT) and the Professional and Academic Aptitude Test (PAT).

Kamjorn said around 400,000 students were currently recruited via universities’ “house-clearing” exams, while more than 100,000 students were recruited via the “admission” central exam system. 

He said the new method would allow the National Institute of Educational Testing Service to organise the exam nationwide at the same time. This would be similar to the old central entrance exam that was scrapped and replaced by the admission process. 

Under the new system, students will know their scores before submitting applications with four preferred university choices. The universities will select eligible candidates in the first “house-clearing” round. 

The remaining seats at universities would be opened for students who did not get in via the first round so they could go into a second “house-clearing” exam. He said this meant students had two chances. 

“This new system’s application and score submission would be done online and have nationwide exam sites,” he said. Students would only pay the exam fee for each subject and the house-clearing fee, he said. 

CUPT vice president Suchatchawee Suwannasawat said the Admission Forum’s working team, led by Pong-In Rakariyatham, would table a report on the proposed change next month. 

He said that all stakeholders should be asked for their input and the CUPT agreed with the use of a central exam for nine-subjects plus GAT and PAT results. 

However they were concerned at the lack of use of students’ high school cumulative grade point average (GPAX) and Ordinary National Educational Test (O-Net) results. He said it could lead to students ignoring classroom study to take tutoring lessons for the nine subjects and GAT/PAT exams. He said related agencies would discuss this with Education Minister Dapong Ratanasuwan soon.