UNITED KINGDOM: Strategies needed to widen student access and success

Peta Lee11 October 2013 Issue No:291

 

An international study into higher education participation has revealed unequal representation across socio-economic groups in several countries. The review of six nations will inform an access and student success strategy being developed for England, and among other things recommends alternative entry requirements and bridging programmes, and more inclusive learning and teaching.

The study report, International Research on the Effectiveness of Widening Participation, also uncovers participation disparities relating to the reputation and prestige of institutions – degree types offered, research and teaching focus, and the type and length of programmes.

The evidence shows that students from lower socio-economic groups are less likely than their better-off peers to attend highly selective institutions. Rather, they are likely to select ‘low-ranked’ universities or those with former ‘polytechnic’ or ‘institute of technology’ status, in each of the countries surveyed.

Produced by CFE and Edge Hill University for the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Office for Fair Access, the report was based on evidence from six national case studies detailing effective approaches to widening participation strategy and practices.

The countries studied were England, Ireland, the United States, The Netherlands, Norway and South Africa.

The report highlights, for instance, extraordinary success in expanding access but dismal retention and completion rate of students at South African universities – where about 50% of undergraduate and postgraduate students do not complete their degrees – compared with The Netherlands, where the average progression rate for traditional university students is 85%.

The study’s aims were to examine the impact and effectiveness of activity and policies on widening participation and success in higher education, and to investigate education systems from pre-school to higher education to discover “whether there are systemic factors which make progression to and success in higher education for those from more disadvantaged backgrounds more or less likely”.

Key recommendations

According to a release, the study findings highlighted “many similarities in the challenges and approaches” in the efforts of the six countries to ensure equitable entry and success in higher education. The key recommendations are:

• A greater role for evaluation at national and institutional levels.
  
• A review of financial support, as there needed to be a balance between costs incurred by students and the amount of financial support available, and of alternative models of financial aid including consideration of how adults, people on social benefits and middle-income students might best be supported.
• A more coordinated approach to information, advice and guidance across the student lifecycle.
• A more collaborative and ‘joined up’ approach to work in schools, colleges and higher education institutions, “to raise not just aspiration, but increase attainment and promote progression to higher education”.
• Good practice sharing.
• More mainstream consideration of alternative entry routes and bridging programmes to facilitate access for academically well prepared young people and adults who otherwise would lack appropriate entry qualifications and preparation.
• Greater consideration of the contribution of learning and teaching strategies in improving retention and success, “including the contribution of staff development to facilitate this”.
  

Some key findings

Among key findings were that social class – whether measured in terms of family income, occupational classification or neighbourhood – was a primary determinant of educational attainment at school level and access to higher education.

Students from higher socio-economic groups or those who attended ‘advantaged’ schools were significantly more likely than those from lower socio-economic groups or ‘deprived’ schools to: come from families with high levels of parental education; have positive experiences of schooling; complete compulsory and secondary schooling; achieve the grades necessary for higher education entry; achieve grades needed for admission to a selective university; and have the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions about further and higher education.

The thorny issue of financial aid also came under the spotlight, as did international comparisons on basic and further as well as higher education.

The authors suggested that more consideration be given to ensuring higher education study was underpinned by a financial aid system that would contribute to widening access and facilitating retention, completion and success beyond higher education.

A balance needed to be found between the students’ costs (through fees) and the amount of financial support available through a combination of grants, income-contingent loans and initiatives like bursaries and scholarships.

In Ireland a ‘Special Rate of Maintenance’ was introduced in 2000, as a top-up grant for students from households with the lowest income levels. The Student Assistance Fund – a hardship fund – was increased from €5 million to €9 million (US$6.8 million to US$12.2 million) in the 2011-12 academic year because higher education institutions in Ireland were experiencing ‘unprecedented levels of demand’.

International evidence and research in the UK showed that there was inadequate funding to provide financial aid to all eligible students, as demand usually exceeded supply for state and institutional bursaries.

In the United States there were also questions about the adequacy of the current system’s methods for measuring financial need among independent students, especially mature students and those in work.

In most countries income support and-or student loan schemes are available to all on a means-tested basis. South Africa was a notable exception, where National Student Financial Aid Scheme funding was insufficient to award state loans to all applicants who potentially qualified for assistance.

Access and foundation courses

The value of collaboration and partnership in the early stages of education was emphasised, and early intervention in primary education and continuing engagement with students as they moved through secondary school, could be effective.

Pre-entry access and foundation courses, delivered in partnership between higher education institutions and schools, could prepare students for university and college.

Access courses typically provide career guidance and opportunities for students to become familiar with higher education, alongside developmental tuition in areas like maths, English, applied writing, information technology and study skills.

There was evidence to suggest that access and foundation courses made a positive contribution to retention and completion, in addition to access.

In Ireland, evaluation of access programmes highlighted several areas of effective practice with respect to working with schools in disadvantaged areas, including early and sustained work with primary school pupils. Many potential students might be ‘lost’ if programmes worked only in concentrated ways with senior cycle secondary school pupils.

In South Africa, access courses had a positive impact on pass rates in the first and second year of study but did not necessarily translate into higher graduation rates, calling for continued support to be available throughout the duration of the course.

A study from the United States demonstrated the positive impact of coaching on retention rates. In one initiative about 13,000 students received weekly telephone support from coaches who were able to leverage existing campus resources to help students overcome challenges.

Research estimated that participants were 12% more likely to stay in higher education in comparison to a control group, and 13% more likely to graduate.

The report said thinking should be applied to devise a universal approach to student retention, followed up with targeted approaches when students’ behaviour or performances showed a greater risk of under-achieving or withdrawing.

Norway takes a universal approach to all issues related to access and success in higher education, and has no marked difference in the withdrawal of students from different social or economic backgrounds.

A number of studies in the US have demonstrated the importance of mainstream rather than remedial academic support for students. South Africa has taken an additional approach to supporting academically weaker students, although the longer term impact of this approach on outcomes for students is, as yet, not certain.

Efficiency, or delivering the most effective use of limited public and institutional resources, was key to achieving an appropriate balance between financial support, outreach and retention activities at higher education institutions worldwide.
 

GLOBAL: International students to reach 3.8 million by 2024

Karen MacGregor11 October 2013 Issue No:291

 

A new British Council report has predicted that there will be 3.8 million mobile higher education students globally by 2024, up from just over three million two years ago. India and China will contribute 35% of the global growth in international students.

The most popular destination countries for students – the United States, United Kingdom and Australia – will continue to attract the largest numbers of students, but there will be more competition from emerging host countries such as China and Malaysia. Also, new major sending countries are arising such as Nigeria, Saudia Arabia and Indonesia.

The future of the world’s mobile students to 2024 builds on the findings of a 2012 British Council report, The Shape of Things to Come: Higher education global trends and emerging opportunities to 2020.

It looks at 56 countries, focuses on and extends the forecasts of student mobility to 2024 and, according to the council, includes analyses of three scenarios in international education “to better understand the possible effects of the future global environment”.

The report, released at the Australian International Education Conference in Canberra last week, is not openly available but can be purchased from the British Council for US$250.

The forecasts

The research finds that the global gross higher education ratio will continue to rise until 2024, with India’s enrolment growth the highest in the world. Overall enrolments will increase by 32 million – 1.4% – a year, to 196 million worldwide.

By 2024, India, China, Indonesia and the US would be home to more than half of the world’s 18- to 22-year-old population, “despite the fact that the Chinese tertiary-aged population is projected to fall by roughly 40 million in the next decade”.

With international education highly valued by individuals, institutions and governments, the report points out, the global higher education sector “has shown strong, sustained growth in past decades despite intermittent economic uncertainty and demographic change”.

Globally, the British Council research indicates, numbers of “outbound mobile” international students would grow by on average 1.8% a year and would reach 3.85 million by 2024. This is down from growth of around 6% a year in recent years.

Sending countries

The big bilateral student flows would continue to be from China and India to traditional host markets such as the United States and United Kingdom.

By 2024, the mobile student population from China is forecast to be 855,000 while India will send 376,000 students – together contributing a third of all mobile students globally.

However, these numbers may not be achieved if economic growth rate forecasts for the two countries are not realised. And with China rapidly developing its own higher education system, demand among Chinese students to study abroad may decline.

If economic growth in China and India declines, the forecast number of international students globally will drop by 52,000.

The report says that Germany could become the third largest sender of students by 2024. “Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Iraq, Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia will emerge as important origin markets,” says the report.

Demographic declines could lower the numbers of mobile students from South Korea and Japan, which have been major sources of international students in the past.

Host countries

The United States, Britain, Australia, Germany and Canada will continue to be the world’s major destinations of international students, the British Council believes.

America will be the “major beneficiary” of growth in student mobility from China and India, while Britain will benefit from the large markets of India, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The research forecasts that India will replace China as the UK’s top student sender.

“Flows between Nigeria and the UK, Saudi Arabia and the US and UK, Pakistan and the UK, and Nepal and the US will be among the top 10 fastest growing bilateral flows between 2011 and 2024,” says the report.

However, growth in the number of international students going to UK universities will be slower in the next 13 years than the government hopes. The British Council predicts that by 2024 there will be 568,000 international students in the UK, 29% up on 2011 – but far less than government’s anticipated 15% to 20% annual growth over the next five years.

Growth in international students going to Australia will be even slower, largely because of a strong currency and the high cost of living, with the country attracting only an extra 71,000 students by 2024, the council forecasts.

It predicts that China – as well as Malaysia and maybe India – could become major host countries in the coming decade. Last year China hosted 328,000 international students and its goal is half a million international students within the next two years.
 

Sugar Industry Highlights Conflicts Over Trade Pacts and Land

By The New York Time

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: September 30, 2013 

Photo: Thomas Cristofoletti for The New York Times

 Activists have called for the exclusion of Cambodian sugar from duty-free treatment in Europe, saying that it triggers corporate land grabs. Above, a worker harvesting sugar at a Phnom Penh Sugar plantation.

OMLIANG COMMUNE, Cambodia — Yim Lon nurses bitter memories of how three years ago the local authorities forced her and her family to dismantle their small home and move it to make way for a sugar plantation. 

The Phnom Penh Sugar Company paid her a few hundred dollars, less than a tenth of what Ms. Yim, 53, says she believes the family’s small plot of farmland was worth. She dreams of being allowed to move their two-room house, made of wood planks and steel siding, back to the site near a stream where they used to grow rice. She is convinced that the other culprits are the Europeans, who buy sugar from Phnom Penh Sugar. “If Europe continues buying sugar from the company, then we will continue suffering,” she said. 

Phnom Penh Sugar says that it has behaved fairly and obeyed local laws. Newly created sugar plantations across Cambodia have created thousands of cash-paying jobs for destitute migrant workers and subsistence farmers, and hundreds of jobs for skilled factory workers. 

But the corporate practice in Cambodia of obtaining tens of thousands of acres from the government as economic development concessions for large sugar plantations, while paying modest compensation to farmers pushed off the land, places a harsh light on international trade pacts that are meant to help the world’s poorest countries. 

To many activists who have heard the tales of people like Ms. Yim, the trade pacts that foster exports can have the unintended effect of encouraging land grabs by wealthy, politically connected families.

Nearly all of Cambodia’s sugar exports go to the European Union under the Everything But Arms program, which eliminates import duties for the sugar. The European Union also sets high minimum prices for imported sugar, well above world levels. Western activists have tried in recent months to organize consumer boycotts against companies that have bought Cambodian sugar, notably Tate & Lyle Sugars, which is owned by American Sugar Refining of West Palm Beach, Fla. 

The European Union has held high-level talks with Cambodian officials about the sugar issue. But it has refrained so far from opening a formal investigation into whether Cambodian sugar should lose duty-free access to the European Union. 

In a written response to questions, Ambassador Jean-François Cautain, the head of the European Union’s delegation to Cambodia, pointed to statistical measures. Rising exports helped Cambodia triple average annual income per person in the last decade, to $980, while reducing poverty to a fifth of the country’s population, he wrote. “We also need to consider the benefits the overall Cambodian economy gets from the ‘Everything But Arms’ scheme and the harm the country would suffer if we remove it,” he wrote. 

Western and Cambodian activists have called for the exclusion of Cambodian sugar from duty-free treatment in Europe, saying that it triggers corporate land grabs. 

“The land is deeply connected to the spiritual life of the people,” said Chum Narin, the land and natural resources program head at the Community Legal Education Center, a nonprofit group in Phnom Penh. 

American Sugar Refining said that its Tate & Lyle unit had bought only two “small shipments” over the years from Cambodia. The first was in May 2011 and the second in June 2012, the company said. It also said that it “has not received Cambodian sugar for over a year and has no plans for further purchases.” 

Both of American Sugar’s purchases were from the KSL Group, another company producing sugar in Cambodia. Phnom Penh Sugar said that it sold sugar to businesses in Spain and Italy, but it declined to identify the buyers. 

Sugar represented only $25.2 million of the $1.34 billion in Cambodian products that the European Union bought in the first six months of this year. Most of the European imports from Cambodia are garments. 

But the developing sugar industry has created jobs chopping sugar cane for previously destitute migrant workers from hill villages even poorer than Omliang Commune. Sugar refineries have also brought multimillion-dollar investments, roads and other amenities to remote areas where investors have long feared to venture in an oftentimes chaotic country like Cambodia.

MALAYSIA: Doubts over ministers’ degrees raised in parliament

Emilia Tan04 October 2013 Issue No:290

 

An altercation between government and opposition MPs ensued in Malaysia’s parliament this week when government officials appeared to brush off questions about the academic credentials of the ministers of human resources and of science, technology and innovation.

Ong Kian Ming, a Democratic Action Party opposition MP, questioned the validity of the academic credentials of Human Resources Minister Richard Riot, who is a former deputy foreign minister, and of Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Ewon Ebin, as well as the qualifications of the CEOs of two major corporations.

“These people have gone so far in the government and corporate world by having these fake degrees, masters and doctorates from well-known certificate manufacturers,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat, or parliament, on 2 October.

Ong previously raised the issue in June, after noting entries on the foreign ministry website – now removed – that said Riot’s MBA was from the allegedly bogus Preston University in the United States.

Ewon was said to have qualifications from Golden State University in Wyoming and the Commonwealth Open University in the British Virgin Islands, listed as ‘unauthorised schools and invalid degrees’ by the Oregon and Maine state governments, according to Ong.

Riot fights bach

Riot, who was in parliament, rebutted the allegation. “There is a difference between fake degrees and credentials from unrecognised universities,” he told the assembly.

He said afterwards: “I worked very hard for three years and received a doctorate from Kuala Lumpur Infrastructure University College in August.” He had previously said that he obtained his undergraduate degree from the genuine University of Hertfordshire in England, and a masters.

Riot, an MP for 23 years and also deputy president of the Sarawak United People’s Party, said that as a former deputy foreign minister he had represented Malaysia and spoken at various international conferences and forums all over the world without problems.

During parliamentary questions, Ong called on the prime minister to state the measures that would be taken to punish people who use fake degrees or degrees from unrecognised universities.

A minister in the prime minister’s department, Shahidan Kassim, told the assembly on behalf of the prime minister that nothing could be done if it was “for personal use”.

“What can we do, if he just wants to frame it up and hang it in his house? If action is to be taken, then we must draft new laws. It is similar to fake goods from China, where it says ‘Louis Vuitton’ but it is not the original,” said Shahidan.

“But if the person uses the degrees to apply for jobs in the government or private sector, then there are proper channels where we can take actions against them.”

Shahidan said that people guilty of using fake degrees or degrees from unrecognised universities to gain employment or promotion could be sacked, pointing out that there had been two such cases in the civil service between 2007 and 2012. But he declined to comment on the specific cases raised by Ong.

Commotion in the house

His reply caused a commotion in the house, in particular because of its flippant tone.

In a statement released afterwards, Ong criticised Shahidan for a response that amounted to “an insult to the intelligence of all Malaysians”. His reaction confirmed that the government had no political will to address “this very serious issue”.

“It also demonstrated that the minister does not understand the gravity of the situation,” Ong said.

“A person who buys a fake degree or who obtains one from a degree mill demonstrates a gap in moral credibility that far exceeds that of a person who buys fake handbags. A minister who cannot see that difference shows his ignorance about the need for integrity, especially when it comes to the arena of academic qualifications,” Ong said.

“Have our standards of integrity sunk so low that we can turn a blind eye to this and make a joke out of it?”

Ong and other Democratic Action Party MPs first raised the issue when the ministers were appointed after elections in June, and called on the ministers to resign if their degrees were proven to be fake.

He said then: “What makes this revelation more ironic is the fact that both ministers are in charge of ministries where human capital development, proper accreditation, certification and standards are key responsibilities.”

GLOBAL: International HE fuels corruption in student admissions

Yojana Sharma05 October 2013 Issue No:290

 

During the corruption trial in China of high-level official Bo Xilai this year, and of his wife Gu Kailai who was convicted last year of murdering a British businessman, much attention focused on the lavish lifestyle of their son Bo Guagua, who had been a student at expensive private school Harrow in England, and later studied at Oxford and Harvard Universities.

Gu claimed in court in China that her son’s education overseas had been funded by ‘scholarships’. It was later revealed these were from a business associate Xu Min. But it also emerged in newspaper reports that she had asked a British balloon firm, Visterama, to accept a £150,000 (US$243,000) over-payment and use the money to pay her son’s fees.

Although he played no direct role in his parents’ crimes, Bo Guagua and indirectly the institutions he attended, may have benefited from allegedly ill-gotten gains.

In recent years British executive William Lowther, who had been head of Australian banknote company Securency, was investigated by the Serious Fraud Office in Britain and Australian police.

They pressed charges alleging he had offered Le Duc Thuy, a State Bank of Vietnam official, more than £20,000 in fees and living costs for his son Le Duc Minh to study for a masters in business administration at Durham University, in return for a lucrative contract to print the Vietnamese currency in 2003.

Lowther was cleared by a jury of the single charge of ‘conspiracy to corrupt’ during his trial in London.

But that the authorities pressed charges – and other cases cited in Transparency International’s just-released Global Corruption Report: Education – are an indication of the attention the authorities are beginning to pay to the link between corruption and international education.

Money laundering

In the United Kingdom, and other countries with a private education sector, using corruptly obtained funds to pay the fees of family members at private schools or universities can be a form of money laundering, according to Ararat Osipian, a PhD candidate at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University in the United States.

“Anecdotal evidence suggests that educational establishments have in place weak money-laundering controls despite the significant increase in overseas students at UK schools and universities,” Osipian wrote in his paper entitled “Recruitment and admissions: Fostering transparency on the path to higher education”.

The sector’s vulnerability to this type of money laundering was acknowledged in a UK parliamentary report in August last year on the illicit flow of assets into the country, particularly from people in public positions and at risk of being corrupted.

Osipian noted that this can take the form of a third party – such as a company or an intermediary – paying school or university fees as part of inducements for obtaining contracts from ministers or public officials.

A variant is that a public official will specifically seek a cash bribe to pay for school or university fees, as was reportedly attempted in the Gu Kailai case.

Bribes

But Osipian added: “Corruption has long plagued the admissions process to higher education including outright bribery, nepotism, cronyism and favouritism, to gain a place ‘through the back door’.

“Education systems that used to be government funded are increasingly generating revenue from students and their parents, and the landscape of recruitment and admission to higher education is changing accordingly,” said Osipian, referring in particular to countries like Russia and Ukraine, as well as elsewhere.

In April 2010, for example, a senior lecturer in the school of government at Moscow State University was arrested after allegedly receiving a bribe of €35,000 (US$45,000) in exchange for arranging admission.

And, Osipian noted: “Once admitted, the need to bribe to maintain one’s place does not always abate.”

In many universities, including in the former Soviet Union, bribes are collected by some faculty members not only for entry examinations but also throughout semesters, and during annual exams as well.

Although there is no suggestion that he obtained his place through misconduct Yang Li, the son of a Chinese government official, was jailed for trying to bribe a British professor with £5,000 to pass his masters degree at the University of Bath in England after he feared he might fail.

Pressures

Growing demand for higher education is adding to pressures that lead some to resort to bribes to secure a place, said Osipian.

In Nigeria, for instance, one million students pass university entrance exams, yet there are only 300,000 places available in public universities.

“Limited access to education has no doubt contributed to the use of bribes and personal connections to gain coveted places at universities, with some admissions officials reportedly working with agents to obtain bribes from students,” said Osipian.

And corruption is being fuelled by globalisation.

In 2007 an admissions clerk at a Californian university was alleged to have taken US$4,000 in bribes from three Kuwaiti students in return for granting them admission to the university.

It was later revealed that some of the students met the minimum admissions requirements and probably would have been admitted without the bribes.
 

UNITED KINGDOM: England has ‘too many’ universities

Times Higher Education28 September 2013 Issue No:289

 

England has “too many” universities and some are likely to close, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry has warned. John Cridland was given a rough reception over his views at a fringe meeting at the Labour conference in Brighton last week, with the Million+ group of newer universities rejecting his argument, writes John Morgan for Times Higher Education.

Pam Tatlow, chief executive of Million+, challenged Cridland from the audience. “In 2009, 2010, universities were full…The idea that we have a fringe about Bright Britain and we come away with the message that universities might go down the pan might not be a good one,” she said. Tatlow suggested that rather than "too many students" or "too many universities", the problem was “a funding system that is not doing the right things”.

Full report on the Times Higher Education site
 

SINGAPORE: Universities set to dig deep for expansion

The New York Times28 September 2013 Issue No:289

 

 At universities in land-strapped Singapore, students may one day borrow books from an underground library, attend lectures in a subterranean auditorium or even swim in an Olympic-size swimming pool below sea level, writes Calvin Yang for The New York Times.

Two of the city’s public universities, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore, have completed preliminary studies on developing the space beneath their campuses for lecture theatres, laboratories, sports facilities and performance halls. A third school, Singapore Management University, has already constructed a basement-level space linking its main above-ground buildings.

At NTU, a group of researchers has spent the past year gathering available data on the university’s surface topography and subsurface geology. The preliminary survey found that the campus offers opportunities for underground space development. Extensive investigations indicated that rock strata 20 to 30 metres, or 66 to 98 feet, below the surface, are suited for cavern construction with spans as wide as 20 metres.

Full report on The New York Times site

THAILAND: Minister criticises ‘unfair’ university entrance exams

Direct exams hurting poor, says Chaturon

Minister renews plea on uni selection tests

26/09/2013

Lamphai Intathep

Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng has repeated his call for universities to cut the number of recruitment rounds held through direct admissions to ensure fairness to poor students.

The frequent exams held by universities under the direct admission method give students from well-to-do families an edge over those who are financially worse off and are unable to pay for the cost of sitting the tests, he said.

Universities are allowed to directly recruit new students under the direct admission system

The Council of University Presidents of Thailand has requested 27 member universities, however, to limit this enrolment method to no more than 50% of new students.

Mr Chaturon said he has other worries about the direct recruitment exams. Students have complained that many of the exam questions cover material other than that taught in class.

The most recent case involved students who sat an exam to enrol at Srinakharinwirot University.

They complained on social media that the exam paper did not cover the subjects they studied at school, and one multiple choice question did not provide a correct answer among the options

Mr Chaturon said the case reflected a long-standing problem with the direct admission method.

He said the frequent examinations hosted by universities, often before the end of the Mathayom 6, to directly recruit students creates a financial burden for parents.

The fact that some questions fall outside the course material taught in class force many to attend tutorial schools, adding to their expenses

 

Mr Chaturon said he had no power to stop the practice, but could only make suggestions.

He said universities should organise a central direct admission exam to ease the burden on families.

Thachaphon Meesomklin, a Mathayom 6 student at Horwang School, said direct admissions should not be eliminated but organised only during school breaks

 

"My friends have to take the direct exams of many universities to make sure they will get a seat, which are expensive.

"The application fee for each exam is 600-1,500 baht and the cost does not include travel and accommodation expenses One of my friends had to pay for a plane ticket to sit an examin Khon Kaen," he said.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/371519/education-minister-appeals-again-for-better-uni-exam-system

THAILAND: University uniforms challenge – And academic freedom

Suluck Lamubol28 September 2013 Issue No:289

 

Thailand’s Thammasat University, one of the few in the country that does not require students to wear uniforms, has sparked a nationwide debate after a student launched a provocative campaign challenging the need for uniforms in higher education. Now the matter has taken a new turn, transforming into an academic freedom issue.

The controversial campaign involving racy posters at the Thammasat University campus in Bangkok was led by Saran Chuichai (20), a transgender student at the university known by her nickname ‘Aum Neko’.

The posters depicting Aum and another student in provocative poses had to be taken down two days after they first went up at the institution’s Rangsit campus in early September, as the university authorities viewed them as inappropriate.

Rector Somkit Lertpaithoon has said disciplinary action would be taken against Aum. Somkit also told local media that the university would appoint a “special commission” to investigate the situation.

However, Aum said the purpose of the posters was to question taboo issues in Thai society – sex, and uniforms – and to start a debate.

Thailand is one of the few countries – others include Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – that still require students to wear uniforms at the higher education level, usually black trousers or skirts and a white shirt.

Enforcement can vary at different universities, and is often up to the lecturers. In some cases, students are barred from exams unless they are wearing proper uniforms, and there have also been cases of lecturers not allowing students into university buildings unless a uniform is worn.

At Thammasat, uniforms are not compulsory according to the institution’s regulations. Somkit said in remarks to local media that the institution only “encourages” students to wear the uniform, particularly during the exam season, “to teach them about the virtue of discipline”.

However, for a first-year compulsory course titled “Integrated Science and Technology”, a Thammasat professor insisted that students who were not in uniform would not be allowed to sit for quizzes and examinations, sparking Aum’s campaign.

Freedom

“The reason I entered Thammasat University was because of its spirit and well-known slogan ‘Thammasat is free every inch’ [of its space],” Aum told University World News.

She was referring to Thammasat’s reputation as the ‘freest’ of all Thai universities, allowing students to think and act as they like.

“Students are not required to wear uniforms, but in reality lecturers in many classes still have compulsory uniforms,” she said. “Even the library in the faculty of business had a sign ‘No Uniform, No Service’.”

Aum also described her protest against uniforms as a “struggle for the fundamental freedoms of students”. She believes uniforms at the higher education level violate student freedoms “even if most students do not realise it”.

A survey of 1,300 students in Bangkok by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, conducted from 14-19 September and asking for their opinions on compulsory uniforms, found that 94% of students viewed them as necessary “to maintain order and uniqueness”.

Liberal university?

The posters were widely regarded as overstepping the mark in Thailand’s conservative society. But Thai commentators have also questioned whether Thammasat is abandoning its democratic roots, broadening the debate beyond student attire.

Thammasat is regarded as a symbol for freedom and democracy in Thai society. It was founded by People’s Party leader Pridi Panomyong, a year after he led a revolution in 1932 that transformed Thailand from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

Thammasat students also played an important role in the student-led uprising against dictatorship in 1973.

During the early 1960s, the university was under the governance of General Thanom Kittikachorn, who later in the decade became prime minister.

He transformed Thammasat University from an open university with over 35,000 students, to a more select institution accepting around 1,000 students. Student uniforms were introduced, with the university citing the need at the time to separate students from outsiders for “security reasons”.

Salisa Yuktanan, a Thammasat sociology lecturer, said that in her view student uniforms were part of an authoritarian society in which students – who are adults – cannot choose what to wear in their everyday lives.

“It is a way to confine people,” she told University World News, even though uniforms serve to underline the integrity of those considered ‘fortunate’ enough to wear them. In addition, it “separates the ‘educated classes’ from ordinary people and unnecessarily divides society”.

Uniforms were introduced when Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University was founded by the monarchy in 1899 to produce civil servants. The uniforms were a symbol of the old establishment and also distinguished students as a distinct class in society, said Salisa.

While there have been debates in the past about relaxing the policy, recently Chulalongkorn University came up with new rules stating that not wearing proper uniforms could lead to a black mark for behaviour, which could lead to parents or guardians being called in for a meeting, or even suspension of a student for a semester. In extreme cases it could even be grounds for expulsion.

Serious consequences

But the debate has also taken a sinister turn, as it divided conservatives and liberals in Thai society, reaching beyond the confines of universities.

Some right-leaning groups regard Aum’s uniform campaign as an attack on the establishment and on tradition.

With the publicity over the poster campaign catapulting Aum into the public eye, Porntipa Supattanukul, a TV host at the conservative channel 13 Siam Thai, filed a lawsuit against Aum for violating the country’s lèse majesté law – Article 112 of the Criminal Code.

Porntipa said she had interviewed Aum for her TV show a few months ago, and was shocked that Aum spoke about the monarchy in a negative way. So she decided to pass the ‘evidence’ to the police.

The ‘evidence’ included items from Aum’s Facebook page, where Aum commented on censorship, academic freedom and the monarchy.

Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division accepted the charge, saying that it would set up a working group to investigate if Aum’s behaviour was also a violation of the Computer Crime Act, which is often used to file charges against dissidents, together with the harsh lèse majesté law, for online posts deemed to defame the monarchy.

In recent years, the law has been used against a number of students and academics for writing critical comments or articles about the monarchy.

They include a student at Thammasat University, Natthakarn, and a student blogger from Kasetsart University, Norrawase. History professor Somsak Jeamterrasakul from Thammasat University and Suraphot Thaweesak, a philosophy lecturer at Suan Dusit Rajabhat University in Hua Hin, have also been charged in recent years.