International schools now targeting the middle class
Dec 01, 2010
More and more Thai families able to afford ‘global’ institutions
Published on November 22, 2010
An international education used to be the preserve of upper class people but this is no longer the case. Today more more middle class Thais are trying to get their children into international schools in the hope they will enjoy a brighter future in the globalised world.
St John Mary International School (SJMIS) in Sara Buri province, Assumption University (ABAC), Chulalongkorn (CU) and Naresuan University International College (NUIC) in Phitsanulok told The Nation last week they were introducing their international and English programmes to the “medium” market in the central part of the country and others upcountry to offer an opportunity for families to get access to an international education.
SJMIS development and public relations manager Vasant Suksophon said the medium market or middle class people were themain target group for their school.
‘Interesting province’
“Lots of people in this group are able to push their children into international education, especially ones upcountry,” he said. “Maha Sarakham is an interesting province because there is a small number of international schools in the Northeast.
“Having an international school there, the school would not only have students from the province, but also others in neighbouring provinces.”
He pointed out that Angthong, Nakhon Nayok, Prachin Buri, Lop Buri, Sara Buri and Suphan Buri also had lots of customers. Others located near Thailand’s neighbouring countries were also interesting.
With the educational expenses of Bt150,000Bt260,000 per year, some middle class people have found SJMIS affordable.
ABAC, despite being located in the Central region, has up to 60 per cent of students coming from upcountry, with 25 per cent from the Central region and 15 per cent foreigners from 88 countries.
“Most of the upcountry students are from Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, Rayong, Nakhon Pathom and Samut Sakhon,” ABAC’s University registrar Kamol Kitsawad said.
“We want more students from different parts of country. So, ABAC has collaborated with Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai and Prince of Songkla Universities, which are located in different regions, to have them provide direct admission to students and select them for ABAC.
“The only province ABAC doesn’t have students from is Mae Hong Son,” he said.
The vice president at Chulalongkorn, Assist Prof MR Kalaya Tingsabadh, said it tried to control educationrelated fees so more students could gain access to its international and English programmes.
“Each faculty has to propose the fees to a central committee of CU. The committee will consider if they are too high before allowing the faculties to reveal the fees to students.
“We offer lower fees to Thai students, compared to foreign students,” she said.
Limited budget
However, Kalaya said most of CU’s students in international and English programmes were in the medium market in Bangkok.
With limited budget and personnel, CU could not run a campaign to promote the programmes among students and parents who live upcountry. Apart from CU’s direct collaboration with schools, each faculty with such programmes used technology as a channel for promotional purposes, she said. “They keep updating information of their programmes on their websites. Webboards on the websites are also used to answer students’ questions. Some of them have used Facebook or Twitter to promote the programmes.”
ABAC and CU have also joined road shows held annually by the Higher Education Commission in every region. That has been another way to reach upcountry students.
NUIC deputy director for academic affairs Saranporn Kirdkoh said that with the lower cost of living, NUIC offered cheaper fees than universities in Bangkok and thus opened more opportunities to students in the North. Their fees were about Bt60,000 per year.
joining the tiee
“NUIC mostly serves students in the North now. However, we plan to introduce our international programmes to provinces in other regions across the country,” she said.
To increase chances to meet local and foreign parents, help students and education agents introduce themselves to more people, and create networks with educational agents, these institutions joined the Thailand International Education Expo (TIEE) 2010.
This event brought together schools with English programmes and international courses, plus vocational institutions and universities; institutes with short courses in English; and educational agents, representatives and consultants.
They said TIEE was an effective channel to communicate with their target groups as they could meet facetoface and give information to them directly and create partnerships with other local and foreign education related agencies to help promote and improve the quality of programmes.
TIEE began on Friday and ended yesterday at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.