Independence in Personnel Management of Autonomous Universities in accordance with Public Law

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the public legal status of an autonomous university as a decentralized non-profit organization established by the state for flexibility and independence in the provision of public services in education. The autonomous university is deemed a juristic person in the category of a public organization established under a specific law, making it distinct from other public organizations established under the Public Organization Act, B. E. 2542. Granted, the relationship between the state and the autonomous university is in the form of governance, rather than command as commonly found in public universities that are government agencies. Further, this paper explains the pivotal roles of the independence in personnel management for the autonomous university as stipulated in the laws, which enables the university to be able to issue rules to set up internal personnel management systems commensurate with the university’s vision, mission, goals and strategies for the university administration and development and has the power to issue administrative orders and administrative contracts for personnel management as stipulated in the objectives. Thus, the action of personnel management, be it an issuance of rules, administrative orders, or administrative contracts of an autonomous university with a direct bearing on the rights or duties of university personnel must be under the control of the exercise of power as follows: the internal control over the administration and the control by the judicial body to guarantee the exercise of the powers of government agencies in compliance with the rule of law.