Abstract:
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The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to explore the capacity and the
performance levels of public higher education institutions in Thailand, and 2) to
investigate the determinants of the capacity and performance level. The unit of
analysis was public higher education institutions in Thailand which were categorized
into 4 types: autonomous universities, public universities, Rajabhat universities, and
Rajamangala universities. The sample was selected by multi-stage random sampling
from the population of 78 universities. The sample of 63 universities accounted for
95% of the total sample. A 5-point likert-scale questionnaire with the overall
reliability of .993 was used to collect the data.
Statistical analysis included descriptive analysis, ANOVA to analyse
differences between universities, Correlation and Regression to test the hypotheses.
The result showed that the capacity and the performance of public higher education
institutions in Thailand were at a high level. There was significant difference in
knowledge and learning among university types. Autonomous University and
Rajamangla universities have more knowledge and learning than public universities
and Rajabhat universities. There was significant difference in financial resource,
collaboration and knowledge and learning among university groups.
Research/graduate universities have more financial resource and collaboration than
liberal arts universities. Research/graduate universities and specialized/comprehensive
universities have more knowledge and learning than liberal arts universities. Three
factors positively affecting the performance ranked from the highest to the lowest level were financial resource, collaboration, and knowledge and learning,
respectively. The equation that showed the relationship was y= 0.336x1 + 0.273X2 +
0.248X3. The findings reflected that financial resource, collaboration, and knowledge
and learning were the most important strength of the capacity and the performance of
public higher education institutions in Thailand but leadership was a weak point, but
positively related to performance and human resources were important weaknesses. In
addition, size and leadership were positively related to capacity and performance. Size
and leadership were mediators of the financial resource, knowledge and learning, and
collaboration. It was recommended that public higher education institutions in
Thailand increase their size in line with the direction of national development and
become international universities. The leaders needed to possess leadership skills and
to be willingly accepted by the university stakerholders. The human resource needed
to be treated fairly through a fair process on rules of universities. The financial
resource should be able to accommodate financial strategic management. As for
knowledge and learning, they should have a clear personnel development plan
through the willingly accepted process. With regard to stakeholder commitments, a
participatory process in providing services and in operation should be willingly
accepted by the stakeholders. For good services and fairness. There should be
collaboration in rendering outstanding and reliable services with stakeholders
participating in the operation. The performance – output, outcome and efficiencyshould be upgraded to the highest level possible. The output quantity should follow
the plan. Access to public universities in Thailand should be made easily by
information technology. The output should have quality and should respond to the
national development and meet the international standard. The work steps should be
cut short as much as possible. The personnel should be trained to focus continuously
on increase of capacity and reduction of operational costs. The National Development
Plan should have a clear direction in terms of people’s qualifications and number to
serve as the manpower of the country. Public higher education institutions in Thailand
should have the direction in knowledge building and in becoming international
knowledge.
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