The Facebook page of the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University has announced that on Thursday, 2 July 2020, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) in collaboration with the Thai-American Education Foundation (Fulbright) with the Bureau of International Cooperation Strategy (BICS) will present a special online lecture, Is This Future Still Our Future?

The event can be viewed on 2 July from 8:30am to 10am Bangkok time on the Facebook Live channel of the Office of Higher Education Strategy (OSA) BICS, MHESI or on the BICS YouTube Live channel.

Among those participating will be Assistant Professor Benjawan Ubonsri, Executive Director of the Thailand – United States Educational Foundation (TUSEF/Fulbright Thailand) located on South Sathorn Road, Bangkok.

Ajarn Benjawan also teaches at the Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.

The introduction will be given by Miss Lakhana Dockiao, Director of BICS Strategy, MHESI, before a presentation by Dr. Andy Hines, a futurist and 2019 Fulbright Specialist from the University of Houston, United States of America (USA).

Dr. Hines earned a PhD in Futures Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, United Kingdom (UK) after receiving a master of science degree in Studies of the Future at the University of Houston Clear Lake and a bachelor of arts degree in history and political science at Salem State College.

Dr. Hines is an American futurist, head of graduate studies in Foresight at the University of Houston, and author of several books on strategic foresight. He is a professional futurist, cocreator of the framework foresight method, Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Foresight at the University of Houston, and Principal of foresight consulting firm Hinesight.

The name of his firm involves a play on words with the noun hindsight, referring to understanding a situation after it has happened.

TU students of history, law, medicine and related fields may be familiar with hindsight bias, also known as the knew-it-all-along phenomenon, referring to the habit of seeing events that have already happened as being more predictable than theyreally were before they took place. Hindsight bias may cause distortions of our memories of what we knew and believed before an event occurred, and can be seen in some histories, descriptions of clinical trials, and  legal systems.

Dr. Hines transformed the noun hindsight to include his own name, Hines, to create a new term, Hinesight.

He has written extensively on future studies, strategic foresight, foresight research methods, the role of organizational futurists, and the consumer landscape.

Books authored and coauthored by Dr. Hines may be borrowed by the TU community by using the TU Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. They include Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight; Teaching about the Future; ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape; 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society; and Managing Your Future as an Association: Thinking about Trends and Working with Their Consequences.

On his personal website, TU students may read his interesting articles, such as Why Foresight? I Can Think of 316 Reasons!: The Futurist’s Toolbox; How Accurate Are Your Forecasts? More Accurate than You Might Think; and also his doctoral dissertation, The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations.

The presentation will explore the future from different perspectives while trying to draw links to higher education in Thailand.

In addition to Dr. Hines, distinguished guest speakers will include Dr. Tarit Nimmanwudipong, General Manager and Head of Commercial at True Digital Park.

Discussion will be led by Ms. Porntip Kanjananiyot, Former Fulbright Thailand Executive Director and Associate Professor Noprenue Dhirathiti Sajjarax, Ph.D., Acting Vice President for International Relation and Corporate Communication, Mahidol University.

The event will be focused on Dr. Hines’ publication Key Issues Influencing the Future of Internationalization of Higher Education which can be downloaded at this link.

As the BICS website informs us about its missions,

The Bureau of International Cooperation Strategy has the following responsibilities:

• Formulate strategies and guided directions for international cooperation on academic development and higher education management;
• Undertake international cooperation activities on higher education;
• Provide guiding recommendations and formulate measures to enhance the competitiveness of higher education institutions in response to the liberalization of trade in education services;
• Promote and encourage higher education institutions to maximize international resources for higher education development; and
• Cooperate with and provide support for the operation of other relevant organizations.

The Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), Ministry of Education, Thailand

is responsible for managing higher education provision and promoting higher education development on the basis of academic freedom and excellence under the direction of Higher Education Commission. OHEC’s mandates include formulating policy recommendations and higher education development plans, setting higher education standards in line with international standards, providing recommendations on mobilization of resources for higher education development, as well as monitoring and evaluating outcomes of higher education management.

OHEC is directed by the Higher Education Commission which carries out its mission through providing policy direction on higher education corresponding with the National Strategy, National Economic and Social Development Plan, and National Scheme of Education. The Commission also takes charge of inspection and evaluation of higher education management of each degree-granting institution in Thailand along with considering issuance of regulations, criteria, and official orders as deemed necessary.

The importance of internationalization

As the BICS website makes clear,

Internationalization (IZN) of higher education has been promoted among Thai higher education community for more than two decades. Since 1990, OHEC (formerly known as Ministry of University Affairs), has addressed IZN in the First Long-range Plan on Higher Education of Thailand (1990-2004) and Seventh Higher Education Development Plan (1992-1996). It has required universities to be more conscious how it generates more opportunities to our higher education circle and beyond. In addition, the plan encouraged Thai higher education institutions to play more roles in the international academic community and to be exposed to the world. In the Thai context, the IZN is regarded as the growth of both regional and global contexts.

IZN is an increasingly necessary for survival and excellence for higher education institutions when education becomes borderless. Higher education institutions are encouraged to internationalized, for example, conducting lectures in foreign languages, undertaking exchange programs for academics, and strengthening research cooperation to carry out projects with internationalized nature. Universities need to design academic programs that equip graduates to perform successfully in both national and international environments.

At this stage, many changes in international dimensions of our system such as more agreements concluded with foreign universities, increasing number of collaborative study programs, expansion of joint research with foreign universities, more incoming foreign students have been witnessed. However, these remain insufficient to prove that our higher education is internationalized. More efforts are needed to internationalize curriculum and improve infrastructure of university to support more international staff and students.

Amidst the digital age, one key word embedded in the core of internationalization is “global citizenship”. This means to realize the benefits of internationalization and to ensure that IZN efforts offer Internationalization at Home (IaH), forms of support for students and staff who lack opportunities to go abroad through diverse provisions and strategies, e.g. international programs, courses focusing on global citizenship, knowledge management, platforms for interacting with foreign visitors, etc.

International education depends greatly on the harmonization of the whole education system in the set course. Teaching, research and services need to be moved toward excellence. Research, curriculum, faculty and staff, facilities and learning environments should reflect regional and international aspects. It is one of the main responsibilities of higher education institutions to foster internationalization to meet regional and international standards.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)