Many universities are facing crises in their direct admission systems, as many students who passed have not reported for enrolment.
To cope with the worsening problem, the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) will hold a meeting to find out the proper proportions of direct and central university admissions on February 12, Professor Prasart Suebka, chairman of the CUPT and the Association of University Presidents of Thailand said last week.
Chulalongkorn University (CU)'s Faculty of Science Dean Prof Supot Hannongbua and Faculty of Education Dean Sirichai Kanjanawasee told The Nation their faculties faced this problem, as do many other universities.
Sirichai said around 40 per cent of students who passed CU's direct admission process had not registered with the faculty as freshmen. Supot said about 50 per cent of selected students at some Science faculty departments had yet to register.
Supot said students might be waiting for the Consortium of Thai Medical Schools' admission results, which have not yet been announced, or might have passed direct admission for other universities and chosen them, so they decided not to report themselves to CU.
Sirichai said since students had taken direct admission tests at many universities, including CU, and many of them previously announced results of their direct admissions, the students decided to register with them before CU announced its results.
Supot said the problem was similar to what happened last year.
Paris Jarupan, 18, a student, said he decided not to register to study at Thammasat University despite passing the direct admissions process there. He chose King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Lat Krabang (KMITL), where he also passed direct admission, registered as a freshman and paid educational fees of Bt17,000.
However, Paris will give up his right to study at KMITL if he passes CU's direct admission.
"The problem will be more severe in the following years if we don't do anything to address it," Sirichai warned.
Both deans said the central university admission system could not screen eligible students for universities, particularly for science and engineering faculties, so the universities decided to select more eligible students via direct admissions. However, this caused financial burdens and unequal educational opportunities for rich and poor students. Many students left their classes to sit tests at many universities.
CU's president Professor Pirom Kamolratanakul said: "CU will be prompt to adjust the proportion of its direct admission if the central admission system can screen eligible students."
Last year, of 121,000 students, 67 per cent were selected through direct admissions, and 33 per cent through the central university admission process.
Meanwhile, Amnuay Soonthornchote and Kamolpan Cheewapansri, members of a panel evaluating the admission systems for the 2011 academic year, will propose that Education Minister Chinnaworn Boonyakiat adjust portions of the central admissions process at a meeting on Tuesday.
Kamolpan wants the CUPT to decrease the weight of the accumulative grade point average (GPAX) from 20 per cent to five per cent because schools have different criteria for giving students grades. Using a high proportion of GPAX could not help screen students fairly.
Kamolpan plans to submit the proposal to the Democrat Party - the party that is responsible for education - on February 8.
Paris said he wanted each university to let upcountry students use the scores of the General and Professional Aptitude Tests to compete for direct admissions, giving them more competition opportunities and reducing their financial burden.
Meanwhile, the Office of Higher Education Commission (Ohec) is now pushing to establish a direct-admissions centre. It will work as a central agency, providing students with information about direct admissions and collecting applications. Each student could choose to apply to five universities at a time. So, it could save students the trouble of running round to apply at each university separately, Ohec chief Sumet Yaemnoon said.
Ohec will gather opinions from students, parents and others in Bangkok and the regions and, if all sides agree it is beneficial, the centre could be open by November - in time to recruit students for the 2012 academic year.
Sirichai said education faculties at different universities would probably join hands to organise direct admissions together next year - providing the examination for students in every province and allowing them to submit their scores to education faculties they choose to reduce their financial burden.
Supot urged the CUPT to test students' knowledge of physics, chemistry and biology separately under Professional Aptitude Test 2 (science subject) to select qualified students for science and adjust the proportions of the central admission.
He said currently PAT2 included the three subjects and it had only a 100 maximum score as each Thai or English subject tests. So students who were good at language subjects could pass the central admission to study in science or engineering faculties. As they were not skilled at the science subjects, he found that most of them selected through the central admissions could not perform well in sciences, especially physics.
"If the central admission [process] is adjusted and it is good enough, it's not necessary to use direct admissions," he said.
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