CityNews – 29th April 2020, President of Chiang Mai University held a meeting to officially announce a reduction of 4,500 baht per student for the coming two tuition terms.
Associate Professor Niwes Nantachit, M.D., President of Chiang Mai University held a meeting with the president of the student council and representative from the student and teaching bodies to announce this reduction in fees following two weeks of protests by the students.
Earlier this month students demanded the university offer a 30% reduction in tuition fees to help alleviate their parents’ burdens, a demand which was countered by the university two days ago when it offered instead a 10% reduction in tuition fees. This offer was immediately rejected by the student council as protests continued.
Assoc. Prof. Niwes explained in the meeting that the university currently has 34,616 students enrolled, with around 73.56% coming from across the north of Thailand, 16.39% from central Thailand, 4.19% from the North East, 3.64% from the East, 1.49% from the south and .73% from the Western regions. Of all the parents of students, 35.65% are in business or trade while 33.81 work for the government, 9.58 are in agriculture or fishing and 7.04% are staff or independent contractors. A further 13.92% have no stated income. Of these parents, 43.86% have income between 150,000-300,000 baht per year, 28.33% earn under 150,000 baht per year and 27.81% earn more than 300,000 baht per year. Last year the university applied for and received 84.6 million baht to support the scholarships for 10,487 students.
As to the 4,500 baht deduction in fees, said Dr. Niwes, it will be offered for all term fees under 45,000 baht, which is the vast majority, and will be offered for each of the next two terms of this year. A 2,250 baht reduction will also be retroactively applied to the previous term. For fees higher than 45,000 baht, a ten percent reduction will be offered for the past term as well as the next two terms. There will also be deductions in cost of dormitories of 10% and the university has pledged a 150 million baht budget to set aside to help students whose parents earn under 150,000 baht per year.
Dr. Niwes went on to say that the budget will come from the university’s annual budget and will not affect any other developments in the pipeline. As to talks of online learning which has been floated over the coming months and which has caused budgeting anxiety for many parents who don’t know whether to pay for accommodation or not, Dr. Niwes says that he cannot confirm until the COVID-19 situation resolves. Should the situation clear up by mid-May, he says, the university will likely announce the resumption of classes for July. All safety measures will be fully implemented across the university, he said.
The president of the student council said that they are tentatively satisfied with the offer but urge the university to be more nuanced with its offering. For instance, they pointed out, some faculties have fees as high as 30,000 baht per term which means that the 4,500 baht reduction is not as much as for those who are in faculties charging much less.