New chief wants Panyapiwat to become Thai corporate university

Assoc Prof Sompop Manarungsan, the new president of Panyapiwat Institute of Technology, yesterday outlined a vision for his school to groom specialised students and become the first corporate university in the country.

At the national level, the school would focus on developing academic programmes and practical research to help strengthen the country's competitiveness in terms of the economy and business, he said.

The first level is a preparation for the service-based global economy.

The educational programmes and practical research could support the expansion of the city in line with the investment on public utilities as well as the agricultural sector.

At the campus level, Panyapiwat will strive to lift its status to the first corporate university. The business sector will support the campus's educational programmes to develop human resources and create knowledge and new wisdom.

PIT would develop the programmes to link with academic theory as workbased learning and use the case study method to create projectbased learning. The school has also applied a new business model called DJT (Deutsche Japan Thailand) for the educational programmes.

PIT is a higher-education institution funded by CP All, the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores.

Sompop forecasts gross domestic product this year growing by 5 per cent. He believes that the Bank of Thailand would hike the repurchase rate by 2 percentage points to cushion against the global financial crisis and to balance inflation and interest rates. This will promote longterm savings of the nation as well as the appreciation of the currency.

The problems of the US dollar, unemployment in the US and the financial crisis in Europe have impacted on the strength of Asian currencies, including the baht, he added.