The impact of middle class and open university graduates in Thailand on its economy

Numerous attempts have been made so far by scholars to demonstrate the positive role of the two open universities in Thailand, namely, Ramkhamhaeng University (RU) and Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU), in its miraculous economic growth for the last thirty years. What is lacking, however, is a comparative study between these open universities and traditional universities with high social valuation, based on relevant numerical data. The objectives of this research are: (1) to grasp why students go to open/traditional universities and how they see the universities{7f2019} quality of education, (2) to describe the social status of RU and STOU graduates in comparison with graduates of Chulalongkorn University (CU), and (3) to find out if higher education at RU and STOU is a good investment. Questionnaires used in a survey of 972 graduates from the Faculty of Business, Law, Economics, and Political Science of the three universities named aboveincluded questions about: (1) university-choice behavior, (2) quality of education, and (3) financial situation such as beginning and current salary, both of which are the crucial indicators to determine the social status of graduates. For university-choice behavior, results of the study indicated that, while CU graduates liked the university mostly because of its reputation, social status and third-party recommendations, open university graduates chose their universities because of the unique characteristics as open universities such as open admission systems, reasonable tuition, and compatibility of work and study. With respect to the quality of education, contrary to common belief, according to the perception of the respondents, open university graduates give higher scores to the education for life/working philosophy and team work provided by RU and STOU than CU graduates, although there is not much difference for other categories. A comparison of the financial situation or social status of the graduatesindicated that, although there were significant differences in beginning and current salaries for the middle and younger generations and CU graduates earn more than those of RU and STOU, there were no differences for the senior generation, according to a faculty-wise comparison between different types of universities, both at the time of graduation and at the present moment. Therefore, one can safely say that RU and STOU have succeeded in generating middle class people just like CU, the top traditional university in Thailand. From an examination of investment efficiency, based on an internal rate of return analysis, it is clear that it was a good investment to go to open universities.

迄今为止，已有诸多学者尝试论证泰国两所开放大学——兰甘亨大学（Ramkhamhaeng University, RU）与素可泰·探玛提叻开放大学（Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, STOU）——在该国近三十年奇迹般的经济增长中所发挥的积极作用。然而，现有研究仍缺乏基于相关量化数据，针对这两所开放大学与社会认可度较高的传统大学展开的比较研究。
本研究的目标如下：其一，厘清学生选择开放大学或传统大学的动因，以及其对大学{7f2019}教育质量的认知；其二，对比兰甘亨大学、素可泰·探玛提叻开放大学毕业生与朱拉隆功大学（Chulalongkorn University, CU）毕业生的社会地位；其三，探究就读于兰甘亨大学与素可泰·探玛提叻开放大学的高等教育经历是否为一项优质投资。
本研究针对上述三所大学的商学院、法学院、经济学院与政治学院共972名毕业生开展问卷调查，问卷内容涵盖三部分：其一，择校行为；其二，教育质量感知；其三，财务状况——包括入职起薪与当前薪资，二者均为衡量毕业生社会地位的核心指标。
针对择校行为的研究结果显示：朱拉隆功大学毕业生选择该校的主要动因在于其声誉、社会地位与第三方推荐；而开放大学毕业生则因开放大学的独有特质选择就读，例如开放式招生制度、合理的学费标准，以及工作与学习兼顾的可行性。
就教育质量感知而言，与大众普遍认知相悖的是，根据受访者的反馈，开放大学毕业生对兰甘亨大学与素可泰·探玛提叻开放大学所提供的人生与职场哲学教育、团队协作能力培养的评分，高于朱拉隆功大学毕业生；而在其他教育维度上，二者并无显著差异。
通过对不同院校类型按学院展开的对比分析（涵盖毕业时与当前两个时间节点），毕业生财务状况与社会地位的比较结果显示：中青年群体中，朱拉隆功大学毕业生的起薪与当前薪资显著高于开放大学毕业生，但老年群体则无此类差异。
由此可以笃定地认为，兰甘亨大学与素可泰·探玛提叻开放大学如同泰国顶尖传统学府朱拉隆功大学一样，成功培养了大量中产阶层群体。基于内部收益率分析对投资效率进行考察后，可以明确：就读开放大学是一项优质投资。