Authoritarianism in Thai Higher Education: The Threats Against Academic Freedom and Productivity
- DOI
- 10.2991/aebmr.k.210305.068How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Academic Freedom, Autonomous Universities, Thailand Higher Education
- Abstract
This article seeks to highlight the most critical issues affecting the academic freedom of Thai academics. The issues have long plagued the productivity of Thai higher education sector. This article will argue that the threat to the academic freedom in Thai universities are not necessarily limited to the outside force or the government, but from the internal factors. It drew on data from laws and regulations, government publications, and academic articles to analyse the situation of the academic authoritarianism in Thailand. The article concurred with Southall and Cobbing [2] and Lao [3] that the accountability system and managerialism has adversely been affecting the nature of academic work. The authoritarianism has been manifested through the prescription of the strict regulations for higher education institutions. After the great economic collapse in 1997, Thai higher education subjected itself to reform and restructure. However, the transformation does not address the nature of ineffective bureaucratic system which pervaded the higher education domain. While the management effectiveness has not been improved. Academics have been experiencing unrealistic expectation in teaching, research publication output, administrative tasks, and multiple quality assurance processes. This leads to demoralization of teaching and research staff and lower outcome of student quality.
- Copyright
- © 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Prapassara Thanosawan PY - 2021 DA - 2021/03/08 TI - Authoritarianism in Thai Higher Education: The Threats Against Academic Freedom and Productivity BT - Proceedings of the 2nd Southeast Asian Academic Forum on Sustainable Development (SEA-AFSID 2018) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 376 EP - 379 SN - 2352-5428 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.210305.068 DO - 10.2991/aebmr.k.210305.068 ID - Thanosawan2021 ER -