Gearing up for growth

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In the case of most higher education institutions, success doesn’t happen overnight — it usually takes time to establish a reputation on which to build a student body and to grow into a fully-fledged seat of learning. The situation has been no different for Asian University in Chon Buri. Ever since it first saw the light of day seven years ago, everyone in the university has been working hard to attract the best student minds from all over Thailand.

Viphand Roengpithya – founder and president of Asian U

But building a university from scratch is certainly no easy task. Just ask Dr Viphand Roengpithya, the Thai businessman commonly known as Dr Vip and a familiar face to TV viewers in Thailand through his programme Sharpen Your Wits.

As both president and founder of the university, the charismatic entrepreneur remembers the moment he first suggested building a university to the old rector from Imperial College London, Sir Ron Oxburgh.

“I joked with him that Imperial College should not be hidden away in South Kensington,” says Dr Vip. “So I suggested that Thailand would be the right place to start globalisation and that if he felt this was a good idea, maybe I could help to kick off the project. He looked straight into my eyes and said ‘Vip, are you crazy?’ I didn’t know I was crazy at that time but now, looking back, I must have been! Although I did finally manage to convince him it was a good idea.”

After finding enough donors to establish the university, bringing on board ex-Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun as Chairman and signing a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Imperial College, the future for Asian University looked bright. But this was 1997 and events that year made life difficult for anyone in Southeast Asia with a business to run.

“The impact of the economic crash was both good and bad,” notes Dr Vip. “On the bad side, it meant that we could not raise any more money. But maybe on the good side, many Thai students could not afford to go abroad.”

Despite the financial situation, the university managed to survive – albeit on a smaller scale than had been originally envisaged. Steadily, student numbers began to grow and highly qualified staff from all over the world were drafted in to provide the quality international education Dr Vip desired for his students.

Dr Vip’s own education has taken him from his lower middle-class roots in a Bangkok suburb to the dizzy heights of entrepreneurship all over the world. Winning a scholarship upon reaching the end of high school, he enrolled with Imperial College in London on a Bachelor’s course in Engineering, eventually progressing to attain his PhD there.

Despite since having worked with luminaries all over the world and winning respect from his people back home, Dr Vip still keeps to his down-to-earth principals which he wants to pass on to his students.

“I feel that people shouldn’t just go after money,” he says. “I’d like the students to develop nine sets of character – honesty, gratitude, hard work, perseverance, frugality, generosity, humility, sincerity and courage. It is an ideal but it’s reachable. In a sense, what we want to do is philanthropic. I truly believe in what the old sage Confucius said 3000 years ago – ‘the man who knows he has enough is truly wealthy’. The current generation are forgetting what I call the ‘beauty of poverty’ – you know, to be poor sometimes is luckier than to be rich. If you are poor but have enough, you learn the value of things – you repair everything you have in order to make it work. But if you are rich, you throw away everything.”

A student makes his way to the main building

‘Asian U’, as it is often affectionately called, offers undergraduate and graduate programmes in a variety of disciplines with links to other universities as far a field as the UK, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Most students specialise in either Engineering or Business Administration, whilst the Faculty of Liberal Arts provides foundation courses in English, Maths, Physics and Social Sciences along with a BA in Business Communication.

Set amongst lush grounds overlooking the Gulf of Thailand, the Asian University campus is made up of a bright and spacious set of buildings. There are also sports facilities and dormitories to house most of the 200 students who study there and there is room for plenty more.

Academic staff come from a wide range of backgrounds with many hailing from the UK, the US and Australia. Occasionally, lecturers come over from Imperial College to deliver papers on specialist topics or present awards. It’s all part of the ‘international’ feel that Dr Vip and his colleagues want Asian University to aspire to. In keeping with this sentiment, all subjects are delivered in the English language.

Dean of Liberal Arts, Robert Shrubsall

Robert Shrubsall is Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Asian U. He first came to the university four years ago to set up the “English Immersion” programme to help students brush up on their English skills in order to facilitate their studies.

“The main strength of our university is that the classes are small,” notes Shrubsall. “We also have lecturers who are familiar with learner-centred methodologies and are genuinely interested in the students. They are involved enough in their subject to care and be able to adapt their subject to the needs of their students. What we find in English, for example, is that students come to us with a lot of passive knowledge in the language but they’ve never had the opportunity to use English to activate their knowledge. So what we can do in our small class is provide opportunities to use their language skills.”

This extra assistance can be a valuable asset for many students at the university as English is more often that not their second language. But the academic staff also caters for other needs.

“We have had students come to us with real learning difficulties and we’ve been able to help them,” explains Shrubsall. “It’s nice to think that we are able to stimulate and teach students who are very good and reach a high level internationally but, at the same time, we’re able to help students who haven’t done very well for one reason or another because we give them individual attention. We get to know them and are able to change their attitudes and motivate them.”

In addition to the main tertiary curriculum, Asian U holds special English summer camps which have helped hundreds of school kids to build up their language skills. There is even a full-time high school (with students from M4 to M6) attached to the campus. The school follows the national Thai curriculum but teaches specialist subjects (Maths, Physics and Chemistry) in English. The hope is that at least half of these students will then pursue their degree at Asian U as they already familiar with campus staff and have friends within the community.

Library facilities

The computer resource centre

The campus quad

Spending your university years on a remote campus such as the one in Chon Buri can bring both rewards and challenges. The small number of students carries with it an intimacy not found in large institutions, whilst its relative seclusion promotes a sense of isolation. For the most part, however, the students we spoke to seemed content.

“I came here chiefly because of the reputation and the curriculum,” says Pui, a third-year liberal arts student. “I went to a school in England and I heard that the system here was based on the British one. I also wanted to come back to Thailand but I didn’t want to live in Bangkok.”

Ping, who is studying his BBA specialising in Information Systems, was offered a scholarship to Asian U and has taken an active role in student life. As well as being a full-time student, he is also president of the student union. “Mostly, we conduct all the social activities and we have roles in certain committees such as the Student Council,” he explains. “Sometimes we can fight what we don’t like and we are being given more power within the university.”

And what does he make of the social life? “Some of my friends in Bangkok say that because we are only a small university, our social life is limited,” he says. “But I think that there is a kind of tradeoff because, although we can have a small number of friends, we know them better and more deeply.”

Baz, another BBA student, took the decision to come to Asian U whilst admiring the calm waters of Lake Erie near his private school in Cleveland. Having got used to the great outdoors and the smell of fresh air, he was eager to move back to his native Thailand but none-too-keen on living in Bangkok.

“I was interested in attending a small university,” he says. “I can get more from my classes here than I could at my old school. Here, I have opportunities to do many things like play sport and other activities instead of just sitting in a car like I would be doing if I was in Bangkok! Eventually, I want to do my Masters and then maybe set up a computer business here in Thailand.”

Asian U students (left to right) France, Pui, Ping and Baz

Asian University also manages to attract international students. Many come from within Asia, although some westerners are attracted by the culture and competitive price of graduate education in Thailand. France, an MBA student who came all the way from New Brunswick in Canada, likes to travel and study at the same time.

“This is actually the third country I have studied in”, she says. “I found Asian University through a contact who was a teacher here. He mentioned it was a great country and a good university, so I chose to study here. Plus I knew they followed an English programme.”

As the university develops, all the students hope to see additional facilities provided along with more frequent links with neighbouring areas whilst retaining that special intimacy and attention they believe benefits them most.

In terms of curriculum, university administrators want to introduce PhD study and further links with other academic institutions abroad. Dr Vip has even suggested a scheme whereby doctoral research can be shared between Asian U and another university overseas, thereby providing students with the best of both worlds but at a cheaper price.

As far as Dr Vip is concerned, realising his dream of a well-populated top-notch university in Thailand is what matters most. There is no financial incentive. “I worked in my business career until I was 55, then I tried to retire,” he points out. “So this is my retirement! I didn’t know it was going to be this tough! This is just a hobby and I don’t expect anything out of it myself. I’m just doing it for charity, for the society. If everyone has this type of attitude, then Thailand has a good future.”

For more information, log on to www.asianust.ac.th or call Chon Buri (66) 03 875 4450 or Bangkok (66) 02 253 4771