College bankruptcy in Korat?
Striking a balance
between professional
standards and justice for students
By Jon Fernquest 
What
happens when a college goes bankrupt?The question is particularly acute for students who will receive professional certificates in areas such as nursing.
Professional standards must be maintained. Justice should also be done for the students and those who have already graduated.
Educational administrators sometimes over-emphasize one of these goals.
I can remember one brave Thai accounting teacher at one university I taught at who flunked a huge fraction of the class because they simply did not have command of the material. The dean of management, seeking to please the students, threatened the teacher and humiliated him into reversing the grades. Justice done? Not for the future employers of those students.
Today's article presents quite a thorny dilemma if you think about it.
Article begins after the vocabulary:
(Photo on right of a nurse drawing medicine into a syringe. Training standards guarantee that nurses can perform such critical tasks competently without negligence).
bankruptcy (noun), bankrupt (adjective) - company doesn't have
enough money to continue in business
striking a balance - not giving too much to one thing, trying to make things equal in strength and importance
profession (noun) - a job that needs special training and skills, especially a high level of education (examples: architect, doctor, nurse, accountant, lawyer)
professional (adjective) - connected with a profession
standard - the level of quality expected or required
professional standards - the level of service quality expected and required in a profession
certificate - an official document or record stating that particular facts are true ประกาศนียบัตร เกียรติบัตร
professional certificate - an official document that shows that a person has mastered a set of skills in a profession
acute - sudden and severe (example: an acute illness)
command of the material - when you understand and have mastered what you were taught
flunked - received an F grade in course so they did not "pass" course and have to take course again if they want "credit"
threatened - when a person tells you they will do something bad to you if you do not do what they want
humiliated - when a person is made to feel ashamed or stupid
emphasize - give extra importance and stress to something you are doing or talking about
over-emphasize - give too much importance to something
dilemma - a difficult situation where you must choose between two bad alternatives
thorny dilemma - a dilemma where it is very difficult to decide what to do
drawing - taking water or energy from a place or thing (example: drawing medicine into the syringe, see photo above)
syringe - a small tube with a needle at the end used for injecting medicine into people
training - the process of learning skills needed to do a job correctly
guarantee - 1. a promise that something will happen or 2. being sure that it will happen
critical tasks - very important jobs (that if not done correctly might result in failure)
competently - performing a task correctly
negligence - not performing a task correctly
striking a balance - not giving too much to one thing, trying to make things equal in strength and importance
profession (noun) - a job that needs special training and skills, especially a high level of education (examples: architect, doctor, nurse, accountant, lawyer)
professional (adjective) - connected with a profession
standard - the level of quality expected or required
professional standards - the level of service quality expected and required in a profession
certificate - an official document or record stating that particular facts are true ประกาศนียบัตร เกียรติบัตร
professional certificate - an official document that shows that a person has mastered a set of skills in a profession
acute - sudden and severe (example: an acute illness)
command of the material - when you understand and have mastered what you were taught
flunked - received an F grade in course so they did not "pass" course and have to take course again if they want "credit"
threatened - when a person tells you they will do something bad to you if you do not do what they want
humiliated - when a person is made to feel ashamed or stupid
emphasize - give extra importance and stress to something you are doing or talking about
over-emphasize - give too much importance to something
dilemma - a difficult situation where you must choose between two bad alternatives
thorny dilemma - a dilemma where it is very difficult to decide what to do
drawing - taking water or energy from a place or thing (example: drawing medicine into the syringe, see photo above)
syringe - a small tube with a needle at the end used for injecting medicine into people
training - the process of learning skills needed to do a job correctly
guarantee - 1. a promise that something will happen or 2. being sure that it will happen
critical tasks - very important jobs (that if not done correctly might result in failure)
competently - performing a task correctly
negligence - not performing a task correctly
EDUCATION
Families slam 'college debt'
8/02/2010Prasit Tangprasert
NAKHON RATCHASIMA : The families of students at Nakhon Ratchasima College say they are deep in debt after paying fees to the school which is now at risk of being shuttered.
The college is one of five tertiary institutes, including a university, which failed a recent education standard assessment by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment.
slam
- to strongly criticise someone or something วิพากษ์วิจารณ์อย่างรุนแรง
debt - an amount of money that you owe หน
deep in debt - owe a lot of money
fees - money that you pay to be allowed to do something ค่าธรรมเนียม
risk - the possibility that something dangerous or unpleasant might happen ความเสี่ยง
shuttered - closed
assessment - the process of making a judgment or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully การประเมิณสถานการณ
tertiary institute - a university or college
Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) - the government agency responsible for monitoring the quality of education in Thailand (See:ONESQA website, also read Thailand's Education Law).
ี้
์debt - an amount of money that you owe หน
deep in debt - owe a lot of money
fees - money that you pay to be allowed to do something ค่าธรรมเนียม
risk - the possibility that something dangerous or unpleasant might happen ความเสี่ยง
shuttered - closed
assessment - the process of making a judgment or forming an opinion, after considering something or someone carefully การประเมิณสถานการณ
tertiary institute - a university or college
Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA) - the government agency responsible for monitoring the quality of education in Thailand (See:ONESQA website, also read Thailand's Education Law).
For graduates of the college's nursing faculty, this means they will not receive a professional certificate from the Thailand Nursing Council.
Third- and fourth-year students have filed a police complaint against the college chancellor and demanded that the college transfer them to other government-approved institutes.
faculty
- a group of departments in a college which specialize in a particular
subject or group of subjects คณะ
filed - to take official action, e.g., to make a formal complaint ยื่นฟ้องร้อง
complaint - when someone says that something is wrong or not satisfactory การร้องเรียน
file a police complaint - ask the police to check if a law was broken
college chancellor - the head of a college
transfer - to move someone or something from one place, vehicle, person or group to another ย้าย
filed - to take official action, e.g., to make a formal complaint ยื่นฟ้องร้อง
complaint - when someone says that something is wrong or not satisfactory การร้องเรียน
file a police complaint - ask the police to check if a law was broken
college chancellor - the head of a college
transfer - to move someone or something from one place, vehicle, person or group to another ย้าย
Somsri Sornjingreed, 44, mother of Suparat Sornjingreed, a third-year nursing student, said she owed 450,000 baht after mortgaging 10 rai of family land and borrowing money from the Student Loan Fund to send her daughter to the college. The college has ruined the family's dream to see Ms Suparat graduate, the distraught mother said. She had hoped her daughter would be able to get a steady job and be the family breadwinner.
Ms Suparat said the Education Ministry must step in and solve the problem.
mortgaging
- borrowing money by pledging something of value as security
security - a valuable thing you will give lender if you cannot pay back loan
pledging as security - promising to give valuable thing (security) if you cannot payback loan
ruined - destroyed; spoiled
distraught - extremely upset, worried or confused
step in - get involved in a situation (and solve the problem)
security - a valuable thing you will give lender if you cannot pay back loan
pledging as security - promising to give valuable thing (security) if you cannot payback loan
ruined - destroyed; spoiled
distraught - extremely upset, worried or confused
step in - get involved in a situation (and solve the problem)
The college faces the prospect of being closed if it cannot convince appraisers that it has taken steps to improve its education standards.
Natthaya Srirapat, who graduated from the college last year, is working as an assistant nurse at a state hospital in the province. She told the Post she would lose her job if she did not have a professional certification by March 1.
The college has said it would find a solution to the problem by Feb 15.
Meanwhile, police said they were considering filing fraud charges against the Nakhon Ratchasima College executives
prospect
- the possibility that something wil happen ความคาดหวัง
ความหวังข้างหน้า อนาคต
improve - to make better ทำให้ดีขึ้น
standards - a rule for behaving which should be obeyed มาตรฐาน, บรรทัดฐาน, กฎเกณฑ์, กรอบ
state - government รัฐบาล
fraud - the crime of deceiving someone or cheating in order to gain an advantage or benefit การฉ้อโกง การหลอกลวง เล่ห์เพทุบาย
improve - to make better ทำให้ดีขึ้น
standards - a rule for behaving which should be obeyed มาตรฐาน, บรรทัดฐาน, กฎเกณฑ์, กรอบ
state - government รัฐบาล
fraud - the crime of deceiving someone or cheating in order to gain an advantage or benefit การฉ้อโกง การหลอกลวง เล่ห์เพทุบาย
(Source: Families slam 'college debt', 8/02/2010, Prasit Tangprasert, link)
