Second-Order Change Without First-Order Change 63
institutions are compelled to improve their international reputation in
order to boost their reputations and rankings. At the same time, given the
state declining financial support for higher education budgets, institutions
are forced, with or without their consent, to generate more incomes by
other means in order to survive. These rationales provide useful heuristic
devices to analyse and understand the trajectory of internationalization
of higher education in Thailand.
As the Thai policy elites became aware of the increasing importance
of globalization, the latter has been used as the main rationale to justify
the policy need for internationalization. Since the 1980s, Thailand’s
economic boom has created a fertile ground for the higher education
sector to prepare for greater “international” dimensions in its structure
and outlook. Phongpaichit and Baker (1998, p. 180) argued that in
conjunction with Thai economic prosperity and the ever-expanding middle
class, the terms “international” or “internationalization” became equated
with the improvement of people’s socio-economic status. Undoubtedly,
this positive interpretation of economic globalization has shaped Thai
education planning. Evidently, from the latter half of the 1980s onwards,
“internationalization” was considered to be a “new catchword” and was
seen as “a term guiding the future development of Thai higher education”
as well as to “help Thailand realize her dreams of becoming a leading
industrialized country in the region” (Nakornthap and Srisa-an, 1997,
p. 164).
It was in the “Fifteen Years First Long-Range Plan on Higher Education”
(hereinafter referred to as “Plan”) that the term “internationalization of
higher education” was first introduced in Thai policy texts. According
to the Plan, the objectives of Thai higher education include “equity”,
“excellence”, “efficiency” and “internationalization”. Subsequently, the
Plan identified four areas which have to be more “internationalized”,
that is: teaching, researching, academic services, and preservation of
culture. In terms of “teaching”, the Plan argued that Thai higher education
needs to focus on providing international skills such as computer and
information technology, management and communication. There should be
more international programmes, more joint degree programmes between
Thai and foreign universities, and more collaboration between Thai and
foreign academics.
The Plan also encouraged more research collaboration between Thai
and foreign academics and the exchange of researchers. It suggested