JTBF Mission to Thailand 2010 (2/01-2/04)

Visit to Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology (TNI)

reported by Kenichi Yoshida (Member of Educational Support Committee, JTBF)

JTBF mission team visited Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology (TNI) in the afternoon of February 2nd.

For me, it was the 3rd time since I visited TNI for the first tim in 2007 when th school house “A” was under construction.

Dr. Supong Chayutsahakij (Chairman of University Council), Prof. Krisada Visavateeranon (President of TNI) and Dr. Bandhit Rojarayanont (Vice President of TNI) welcomed us. Subjects of discussions were current status, operational concerns for this year, cooperation of JTBF about Japanese lecturers and so on. Then, we were introduced to a campus tour to the school house “C”.

Current Status of TNI

Construction of the school house “C” completed last year. The total number of students, bachelor course and master course, will increase to 3000 from current 2200, expecting completion of 4th year entry in June this year. Then, TNI will reach an ultimate form of university.

Major concept of TNI is as following.

1. TNI is characterized by its emphasis on so-called Monozukuri Technologies (Japanese style of manufacturing technologies)
   -Development of engineers of Japanese and English capabilities
   -Development of engineers of practical and experiment-based capabilities
   -Specialized to acquisition of car and electro-mechanical technologies
   -Networking with Japanese organiztions and agencies
2. Supports from Japanese organiztions and agencies
   -Scholarship offering from JCCB, 8 millions baht per year
   -Offering of experimental equipments by Japanese companies
   -Cooperation in making educational curriculum
   -Practical training program and internship program at Japanese companies (starting June this year)
   -Dispatched lecturers from Japanese companies
   -Hiring of first graduates of TNI by Japanese companies
3. Contract with Japanese universities
   TNI has contracted with 15 Japanese universities such as Kyushu University, Tohoku University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Tokai University and so on.
4. Short-term student interchange program (1-2 months)
   TNI has sent students to Osaka Institute of Tecnology, Chiba Institute of Technology, Sibaura Institute of Technolgy, etc. , 1-2 students for each.
5. Number of students and scholarship recipients

   year	total students	scholarship recipients
   2007	433	77
   2008	1,234	90
   2009	2,184	75
   2010（plan）	3,000	60

Concerns for This Year

It will be the first year that all of students from the 1st grade to 4th grade will be onboard. The 4th grade students will be the first graduates from TNI. Then, job placement of them is mostly concerned. On this point TNI was rather optimistic because of positive signs as follows. (1) Japanese companies’ positive acceptance of internship program which is to start in June. 300 companies expressed acceptance against offering of 250 students. (2) 3.5% GDP growth is predicted and car production reach 1.3 millions (maximum record). (3) TNI graduates are specialized to acquisition of car and electro-mechanical technologies

Any way, job placement of the first graduates is to be carefully monitored.

Dispatch of Japanese Lecturers

Since the beginning, TNI has asked for support of JTBF on this subject and JTBF has responded positively.

In fact, there are 2 kinds of dispatch program, SV (Senior Volunteer) program and EX (Expert) program. In the past, JTBF recommended EX program in consideration of insufficient benefit plan of SV program. JTBF started to consult with JICA towards this direction, via JTECS and with cooperation of former Ambassador Mr. Suvidhya. However, TNI’s response was not positive for EX program, which required an approval of Ministry of Education.

In this meeting, JTBF reconfirmed past communications and proposed as following.
- SV program is not sufficient to attract capable lecturers. EX program is recommended.
- In case of recruiting via JICA, JTECS and JTBF would better be informed beforehand so that JTECS and JTBF, through their own communication channel, can support TNI to recruit the best possible candidates through JICA.

TNI accepted the proposal.

On the other hand, TNI informed us that they, in the past, accepted one lecturer of car engineering via JODC (Japan Overseas Development Corporation) and now in a process of extension.

Campus Tour

After the meeting was over, we were invited to campus tour, to the newly completed school house “C”.

School House “C”		Practical Training Room