Lessons Thai Higher Education Can Learn From The Open University Concept - Addressing The Needs Of An Aging Workforce, Reducing Education Inequality And University Survival.
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Abstract
This article aimed to investigate the extent to which the Open University concepts principle are applicable, lleviating current problems faced by Thai Higher Education. Thai Universities were at a crossroads in transitioning from a heavy industry-based workforce to a high tech and innovation value-based economy in alignment with the Thailand 4.0 initiative 20 years plan launched by the government in 2018. Thai Higher Education faced the following critical issues; firstly, a demographic downturn of the student-leaver population; secondly, education inequality; and thirdly, re-training an aging workforce.
I proposed that the OU (Open University) model
adequately addressed these challenges, based on the
available conducted research and an analysis of 50 years
of success and groundbreaking innovation. The open
Universities have achieved international success in providing quality education to an expanding student base, independent of location, and reached working adults in middle-income and poorer countries, thus bridging the inequity gap, and most importantly, provided programs of study as interventions to deliver social and economic change.
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