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Cite this journal as: Eden, S. W. (2018). Problem of Thai students’ choice of undergraduate field of study. Retrieved from http://sw-eden.net

Problem of Thai students’ choice of undergraduate field of study

I was born in Thailand in 1987. I had studied in Thai school more than 10 years, including my elementary, primary, middle, and high school. I went to a Thai university for a half year before moving to New York. Later, in 2012, I finished my master degree and became a university lecturer in Thailand and also a doctoral student in both Thailand and Ohio.

The problem that I have found since I was young is that the “disproportion” regarding the number of students, their skills, the number of choices in undergraduate programs, and the number of choices in the real-world career.

First, many parents want their children to study in healthcare related programs, such as medicine, pharmacy, nurse, and also veterinary. With my experience, these people do not expect that their children would help others, but these parents expect their children’s high income and quality of life.

Figure 1: Field of Study

Generally, there are 3 types of high school in Thailand. During the primary school and middle school, almost all of the students in Thailand learn the same thing set by the government. However, in high school, they are separated to be 3 different programs, which are (1) science and math school, (2) art and language school, and (3) art and math school. Many students have to go to tutor school during the weekend and try many way to get into the first choice, science and math school. This is because it is the gate to get into the healthcare-related career, and also other careers that they could make a lot of money, like, architect and engineer.

For other two choices, the art-related high school programs, students in these two programs could have a ton of choices in their future, but they seem not to be proud of being in these two programs.

This phenomenon causes a too-high number of people studying math-science-and-healthcare-related programs, but finally, many of them have to work in art-and-social-sciences-related careers. In other words, if too many people graduated from such the program, there will not be enough spaces for them in the workplaces.

In my opinion, Thai parents should encourage their children not just to earn the large amount of money, but to devote themselves for the society. There are many jobs that we could balance both at the same time. For instance, I could produce a prosocial film for the audiences to learn from it.