Background
British Council has become more responsive to the priorities of Thailand education and focus on the wider impact to the country’s economic and social development. In alignment with the government’s recent 20 Year National Strategic Plan and the Thailand 4.0 Policy directed towards human capital development, in particular, focus has been placed on strengthening institutional leadership, research, and international cooperation. The underlying theme is “Internationalisation” with the intention of equipping staff at all levels to meet industry demands and build leadership for stronger collaboration while improving the strategic direction of internationalisation of both Thai and UK higher education institutions in the future.
To achieve this, the British Council and Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC) through the Thai-UK Higher Education Partnerships Project (HEP), will extend and sustain the network of 22 existing TNE links developed as part of the UK-Thailand TNE Development Project from 2015–2018. The project will build on the Newton Fund Institutional Links to develop industry engagement and extend the research collaboration to broaden academic and industry partnerships. The partnership project will bring together Thai and UK institutions to facilitate co-development and provide capacity building for members of staff including management, researchers, academics and those involved in international affairs on the process of internationalisation. This will pave the way for a smoother and more supportive environment for Thai and UK institutions to form partnerships. The project will also create a platform for Thai and UK knowledge exchange and networking through a series of forums touching upon the current issues facing higher education institutions
HEP will lead to an active environment and engagement between Thai and UK institutions, and enhance internationalisation of higher education institutions of both Thailand and UK and build on the capacity of leadership in Thai institutions, which will increase opportunity for running stronger collaboration for academics, researchers and students.
“This collaboration will stimulate research activities and graduate programmes into a new dimension, leading to research enhancement for both institutions.”
Associate Professor Supachitra Chadchawan, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University
