Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
Student councils from several leading universities have condemned the planned launch of a new national examination for graduates.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about this controversial plan.
Groups from Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Kasetsart, Mahidol and Taksin University’s, as well as King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi on April 30 slammed the newly proposed University National Examination Tests (UNET).
UNPOPULAR PROPOSAL
The Student Council of Chulalongkorn University (SCCU) set up an online poll to gauge opinions on the new exam, and from April 27-30 drew 1,010 responses. Of them, 71 percent strongly opposed the launch of UNET, 22 percent opposed it somewhat, 5 percent felt indifferent, while only 2 percent agreed.
SCCU head Siwat Sudadech said the poll demonstrates the overwhelming opposition to the exam.
“The vast majority of students are opposed to UNET,” he said. “Only 2 percent of students believe UNET could be new way assess graduates’ competencies and help reduce educational disparities among graduates of different universities.”
PERFORMANCE TEST
Developed by the National Institute of Educational Testing Service (NIETS), UNET is aimed at evaluating the academic performance of graduates at Bachelor, master’s and doctorate degree levels. It comprises three main parts to assess graduates’ competencies in Thai and English communication skills, media literacy and critical thinking, moral reasoning, as well as specific professional skills.
MEASURING STANDARDS
Chulalongkorn University lecturer Soraj Hongladarom said UNET is designed to measure the education quality of each university rather than individuals.
“UNET is part of a procedure to evaluate the quality and standard of universities,” he said. “I propose that individuals not be identified when taking the exam.”
NOT NEEDED
Thammasat University lecturer Pipad Krajaejun rejected the idea of testing students to assess university performance, saying the different inputs of each university would always result in different types of graduates.
“It is the responsibility of the Office of the Higher Education Commission and the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment to ensure that standards are high enough to nurture quality graduates,” he said.
Exercises
Read through Exercises. Then, match each of the following words used in the story with the correct definitions from the choices given.
| ……. 1. graduate | a. to help something or somebody to develop and be successful |
| ……. 2. assess | b. to make a judgement about the quality or nature of something |
| ……. 3. vast | c. extremely large in area, size, amount, etc |
| ……. 4. nurture | d. a person who has a university degree |
Vocabulary
- indifferent (adj): having or showing no interest in something
competency (n): the quality of being able to do something well
disparity (n): a different, especially one connected with unfair treatment
reasoning (n): the process of thinking about things in a logical way
input (n): time, knowledge, ideas, etc. that you put into work, a project, etc. in order to make it succeed
