The Minister of Education, Prof. Dr. Suchart Thadathamrongvech, chaired a meeting on 11 September 2012 to settle the problem of the new term dates of the opening and closing of the new semesters in order to coincide with those applied by ASEAN and other countries world-wide. Among the attendants were representatives from the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), the Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC), the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT), the Council of Rajamangala Technological University Presidents of Thailand (CRTUPT) and the chairman of the Sub-Committee for the Selection of Students for Universities.

After the meeting, the Deputy Secretary General of OHEC, Mr. Kamchon Tatiyakawee, reported that the Minister of Education agreed with the resolution made by CUPT concerning the new dates for university semesters in Thailand. Starting in the academic year of 2014, Thai universities will start the first term in August or September so that connections with Thai and international universities will be more convenient, especially with regard to university credit transfer. Nevertheless, the CRTUPT reported that research done by 40 Rajabhat Universities of Thailand with over 10,000 students and parents had found that most of them did not want the new university dates because the changes would affect lifestyle and culture.

While CRTUPT was only prepared to start the new university periods if all universities in Thailand accepted it, OBEC did not give any opinion on this and thought that schools did not need to start the new semester like universities so that high school students had plenty of time to study.

In addition, the meeting also discussed how the new semesters would affect the Thai university admission system because some universities that start the first semester earlier would have many students transfer to study in other universities which start the first term later, even though their tuition fees had already been paid. To make matters worse, some universities would delay their student admission indefinitely, thus causing a lot of problems in the future.

As a result, the meeting mutually agreed that the fewer university admission exams the better. OHEC will now send a letter to all Thai universities asking them how many times each of them accept new students each year and what subjects students should study for the exam. However, admission exams should not occur any more than three times a year or they should be carried out in the form of a Clearing House.

In summary, the new Thai semesters for university will be:

Term 1: August/September – December
Term 2: January-May
Term 3/Summer Term: June-August

More updates on Thailand term time will follow soon.

More information: http://www.en.moe.go.th