Special Feature

No.68 Autumn 2013

Special Feature: Southeast Asian Studies: Crisis or Opportunity?

Southeast Asian Studies in Thailand
Charnvit Kasetsiri
Emeritus Professor, Thammasat University

I

would like to talk about the state of Southeast Asian Studies
in Thailand, but before I do so, I would like to just bring to
your attention something that some academics have said
about Southeast Asian Studies. First let’s hear from Oliver
William Wolters (1915-2000). In 1993, at a workshop in Jakarta,
he said that “the major contribution of Southeast Asian studies
within the region itself could be the enhancement of one’s
self-awareness in order to assist one in reaching a better understanding of the present. Perhaps, in an age of great change,
there is more than ever a need for self-awareness” (Wolters1993). To contextualize these comments, let us go back furtherto 1977. Two years after the Communist’s victory in Cambodia,
Vietnam, and Laos, Thak Chaloemtiarana and Sombat
Chantornvong, two leading academics from Thammasat
University, Bangkok, Thailand, made the interesting observation
at a colloquium on Southeast Asian Studies at Kota Kinabalu,

Sabah, Malaysia that Southeast Asian studies in Thailand wasparochial, meager, and “at square one.” Hence, the implication
here was that Southeast Asian Studies in Thailand was nonexistent.
By the end of the ‘80s with the collapse of the Communist
regimes in the West and tremendous changes in the East,
Thailand was making record economic growth and was part ofthe so-called ‘Asian Miracles.’ In 1991, on behalf of my university,
I attended a Kyoto-Thammasat Core University conference:“In Search of a Collaborative Framework for Southeast AsianStudies.” There, I proposed that there was an urgent need andthat the time was ripe to take action on Southeast Asian studies for Thailand.
Let me jump to the ‘90s again. In 1995, a group of some 50
academics and students from Thammasat, Chulalongkorn, andSinlapakorn Universities, with support from the newly established Thailand Research Fund (TRF) held a discussion andtheir conclusion was the following:“Now that Southeast Asia has become more and more of aregional entity, and now that it has received full recognitionby universities in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and elsewhere,
is it too late for us to reconsider Southeast Asian studies as
an inter-discipline that deserves full academic attention...?
Are we too late to act?

Emeritus Professor Charnvit Kasetsiri. Source: Author

So, is it really too late for us Southeast Asianists to reconsider
Southeast Asian studies as an interdisciplinary field thatdeserves­our full attention? Are we too late to act? Let us fast
forward to the year 2000 for we can find one answer in thesudden­proliferation of studies on Southeast Asia at various
Thai Universities.
Chulalongkorn started with an M.A. program on AsianStudies, an ‘international program.’ But let us clarify that when
we say international what we really mean is that English is themedium of instruction, it admits 10-20 students per year mostly
from foreign countries, and tuition fees are very expensive.
Thammasat also came up with a B.A. program; one that is‘special’ with direct admission tuitions and high fees admitting
100 students per year. Thammasat also received support fromoutside donors, especially from Japanese government (via theJapanese Ministry of Education (MEXT)); Core University Program (Kyoto-Thammasat); Toyota Foundation, Japan; andSoutheast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program (SEASREP)
which was established in 1994.
What the above proliferation suggests is that at present,
there seems to be a shift in Thailand from “Southeast Asian15

Table 1. Expansion of Student Population and Universities
Population of Thailand
1990

54 million

2000

61 million (up 1.10%)

2010

65 million (up 1.07%)
Students: High Schools Graduates

1990

271,0962000

292,244 (up 1.07 %)2010

629,768 (up 2.15 %)Universities

1990

16 (state universities)

2000

24 (state universities)

2010

164 all universities (including private ones)

Source: Author

Studies” to what we can call a ‘trendy’ “ASEAN studies”: a kindof brand change. There are at least five B.A. programs in Southeast Asian or ASEAN Studies and these are not just limited toBangkok, but also found in Chiang Mai, Phitsanulok, Nakhon
Sithammarat, and so forth. Interestingly, in some universities
the name of studies has been changed to ‘ASEAN’ Studies. Thisis meant to attract students and to also gear up toward thebirth of the ASEAN Community in 2015.
We also have a number of acronyms which have become
familiar all over Thailand. We have the Bangkok Declarations(5+5+1). If you are in Thailand now, you will find people discussing ASEAN’s ‘three legs.’ These are APSC (ASEAN PoliticalSecurity­Community), AEC (ASEAN Economic Community),
ASCC (ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community) with flags appearing
all over Thailand, in particular in Universities. It is jokingly said
that one can now make money from selling these flags...
In addition to the above B.A. programs, there are five more
M.A. plus one new Ph.D. program at Naresuan University in
Phitsanulok. This type of academic proliferation can also beseen at Thammasat. The university now has one B.A programin “Southeast Asian Studies” (2000); one new ‘international’
M.A. for ASEAN Studies (2013); one research program called
ASEAN Studies Center (2011); plus one research program inSoutheast Asian Studies (2013). So the question that arises here
is why has there been such an academic proliferation of thesecourses?
Firstly, there has been a big push from ASEAN with active
campaigning by the Secretary General Dr. Surin Pitsuwan(2008-2012). Secondly, there was a positive response from Thai
Government administrations. Initiated by the Abhisit’s (2010–11) and continued with Yingluck’s administration since 2011.
This was not the case with Thaksin’s administration (2001–2006). Thus, we can see that ASEAN has become a trendy new
brand in Thai primary and secondary education and there is16

top down funding from the Ministries of Education and Culture.
Thirdly, this proliferation becomes a lot clearer if we look at thefollowing statistics (see Table 1.). The population has continued
to increase and what is interesting here is that from 2000 to2010, the student population has also shown an increase. Yet,what is most notable is also the increase in universities.
Between­2000 and 2010 there has been an incredible proliferation of them in Thailand. This represents a change not just inThailand, but also in Cambodia and Myanmar where you can
see an increase in private universities, something that suggests
a regional phenomenon.
If we look at Thammasat University, the Faculty of Liberal
Arts has set up a Southeast Asian Studies program in 2000
(not funded by national/university budget). This program has
direct admission (i.e. not through a national entrance exam),with 100 students registered per year. It focuses on an interdisciplinary approach, and the study of one Southeast Asianlanguage (besides Thai) is compulsory. Tuition and fees are35,000 baht ($1120) per semester. Therefore the cost for a four
year course amounts to 280,000 ($8,950) for 4 years.
The program has been rather successful with a good number of applicants. It has also made a good profit as well. Unfortunately, it is less successful in creating an efficient administration and foster sufficient teaching staff and academics, not tomention research work or publications. It depends primarily on
invited part-time or retired lecturers (like myself ) including‘borrowing’ regular Thammasat University teaching staff. The
program has only four junior lecturers per 400 students. Thisis the kind of situation that most universities are facing at themoment.
The faculty of Social Sciences at Kasetsart University, also
has a Southeast Asian Studies program which it established in2007. As with Thammasat, it offers direct admission and has 100students per year. The program focuses on an interdisciplinarySpecial Featureapproach but at its inception, it did not require another Southeast Asian language (besides Thai). Tuition fees are the sameas above. It does not have teaching staff of its own and therefore relies on regular faculty lecturers.
Walailak University, Nakhon Sithammarat offers a B.A. in
ASEAN Studies, Liberal Arts. The program was established in
2002, two years after Thammasat, and what is of interest here isthat at first it was offering area studies and due to its location in
the south placing a strong focus on Malaysia and Indonesia
with compulsory Bahasa language training. However, in 2011,its degree name was changed ASEAN Studies. The reason forthis is that under the area studies guise, student registration
dropped to 10 per year. However under the new guise it wentup to 80 with the new ASEAN label. Students are admitted
directly or through national entrance exams. Tuition fees aremuch less than in Bangkok, at 10,000 ($31,400) per semester,and the program seems to work, but as with Thammasat there
are issues with teaching staff.
To catch up with this trend, in Bangkok, the Faculty ofHumanities and Social Sciences at Rajabhat Ban Somdet­­Chaophraya (teacher training college) started offering a Southeast Asian Studies program. This started in 2012, with sevenstudents, and 10 the following year. Like most other teacher
training colleges it fails to attract students. So it has started tooffer ‘free’ admission and maintain low tuition fees. It employs
three junior lecturers.
Mahidol University has an international program that was­established in 2000. English is the medium of instruction and
it is oriented to foreign students for those who take their­semesters overseas. It offers Southeast Asian Studies and modern World History. At Chulalongkorn, we find that there is aSoutheast Asian Studies ‘international’ program aimed for foreign students, with the highest fees: 450,000 ($14,390) justfor tuition fees. Thammasat’s ASEAN Studies, ‘international’ program is 280,000 ($8,950) for tuitions and fees. At Chiang Mai
there is also a Southeast Asian Studies at 100,000 ($3,200) (forweekday classes) and 160,000 ($5,120) (for weekend) for tuition
fees; Walailak offers a Southeast Asian Studies, regular program;and Sinlapakorn, Nakhon Pathom offers a Southeast AsianHistory (mainly Thai oriented) regular program.
In terms of Ph.D and M.A. studies, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok was newly establishedin 2013 and it presently has 10 M.A. and 6 Ph.D. students.
Tuition­and fees for M.A. is 30,000 baht ($960) annually, whilea Ph.D. is 60,000 ($1,920). We should note that these are rather
inexpensive when compared to the B.A. programs that are nowoffered elsewhere. Interestingly, the program has five lecturers
all with Ph.D. degrees who are conducting ten research projects
funded by TRF.
So having looked at the increase of Southeast Asian Studies
across the country, in conclusion, why do we see this proliferation? Are many of the programs that are classified as ‘special’or ‘international,’ profit oriented and leading to the commercialization of education? It remains to be seen if “academicknowledge” of Southeast Asian studies, now somewhat termed
as ASEAN studies, in Thailand, will take off or be, as we say in Thai,“Fai Mai Fang” (fire burning straw, i.e. it comes and goes quickly).

No.68 Autumn 2013

I am certain that from the above discussion we can hardly
say that Southeast Asian studies does not exist in Thailand. It
has been around despite being “parochial,” a by-product ofworld politics, and being pushed from the outside (by USA andJapan). I myself am a byproduct of American education. Nonetheless, as has been discussed above, whatever its origin was inthe ‘60s and ‘70s, Southeast Asian Studies by ‘90s has come tobe a localized Thai response, as can also be seen in other partsof the region. By 2000, we came to witness the phenomenonof a ‘proliferation’ of Southeast Asian or ASEAN studies in Thailand.
So we have come full circle to what Wolters raised. If the time
is ripe for self-awareness, as proposed by him, a genuine Southeast Asian studies in Thailand, or to a large extent Southeast
Asian studies in Southeast Asia, has to be collaborativelyworked out. There has never been a time where we have seen
shared common, cross-cultured boundary problems as we dotoday. Thus, we in Southeast Asia hold the potential to become
mirrors of one another. We can see problems but at the sametime we hold the key to finding solutions together.

Discovering Ayutthaya (Japanese version) written by Charnvit Kasetsiri and­Yoshikawa Toshiharu
17