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ject to a new performance appraisal and competency evaluation schemes with tougher
and more articulated standards. In other words, their changing status from govern-
ment officials to university employees requires them to improve their skills and work
competencies. Accordingly, research on skill development and improvement among
Higher Education personnel has become one of the main areas of research after the
Higher Education Reform of the previous decade (Suthammanon 2014 ).
Research to strengthen human resource skills at the level of academics and staff
is not the only focal point of contemporary work on Human Resource Development
in Higher Education. Studies relating to the preferable traits and managerial out-
comes of higher education administrators and executive, as well as University
Council members or members of the Board of Trustees, have also been on the rise
in the last decade (Suthakavatin 2005 ). Several studies have been conducted to
reveal strategies to improve the performances of HEI administrators and executives.
Some scholars have also put effort in addressing the human resource management
issues relating to those serving HEIs. Examples of this include Knowledge
Management Techniques, Quality of Life or Life-Work Balance of HEI Personnel,
Learning Organisations and finally Organisational Engagement. The latter issue on
Organisational Engagement has become one of the popular issues in Higher
Education research as many HEIs in Thailand are faced with the dilemma of brain
drain and talent management. Many have agreed that recruiting and retaining talents
require entirely different management techniques. Against the backdrop of the lib-
eralisation of Higher Education and the autonomous universities, both academics
and general staff talents could be moving elsewhere at an unprecedented rate.
Therefore, research in areas such as Organisational Engagement and Commitment
as well as Job Satisfaction among both academics and non-academic staff has been
on the rise in recent years (Sirisunhirun and Dhirathiti 2015 ).
The fifth area of Higher Education research in Thailand centres on the issue of
Higher Education Reform. This is especially true during the reform period prior to
the second Higher Education sector reform in 1999. The majority of the research
was funded by governmental agencies such as the OHEC and the ONEC. This is
simply the case because these two national agencies were tasked with overseeing
the overall strategies of Higher Education Reform in the nation. The common char-
acteristics of research in this area focus on the preparation of the Higher Education
sector and personnel with skills for the twenty-first century, governance as well as
teaching and learning strategies for HEIs and the lessons learned from Higher
Education globally. The latter was specifically funded by the ONEC in a series of
comparative studies by examining the issues of Higher Education Reform, gover-
nance systems and teaching and learning mechanisms from various nations, includ-
ing several models in the UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA (World
Bank 2013 ). Unlike other areas of Higher Education research in Thailand, research
on Higher Education Reform was rarely academic or the focus of graduation thesis
research. Research on Higher Education Reform was more often categorised as
commissioned or consultancy research by government agencies.
The final category of Higher Education research in Thailand is on Teaching,
Learning and Curricular Development. It is perhaps the largest pool of resources
N.S. Dhirathiti