Abstract:
This research study aimed study the factors leading to the research universities of the public and private higher education institutions both domestic and overseas; to examine current situations and readiness for developing private higher education institutions towards research universities in Thailand, and to propose strategies for developing Thai private higher education institutions towards research universities. The samples were 1) 4 administrators of overseas public and private universities; 2) 6 administrators of Thai public and private universities; 3) 3 senior experts who were the administrators of research-related units; 4) 102 administrators of research works of private universities in Thailand; 5) 8 experts who were the administrators of higher education institutions and research-related units and attended connoisseurship as well as 6 of them who participated in the validation of certification of the strategies: case study of Siam University. The research instruments were 1) content analysis form; 2) data survey form; 3) interview form; and 4) questionnaires. The research results were: 1) Success factors leading to the research university consisted of the organizations structure, modern technologies, academic freedom culture in the organization, environment, and supports for research works such as budget, buildings, and research facilities. The internal factors that most affected the success were potential faculty members and students to engage in research works, effective management systems, and visionary and creative leaders. The availability of strategies as the roadmap for developing towards the research university was the most important. 2) With respect to the current situations and readiness of private higher education institutions, the lack of faculty members to do research quantitatively and qualitatively was found. There was no motivation systems for encouraging faculty members to do research, especially those who had high potential resulting in less dissemination and utility of research works. Private education institutions engagement in doing research was thus merely to fulfill their respective missions and was driven to do so according to the standards under Education Quality Assessment Criteria. Further, it was also found that, due to budgetary constraints, most private education institutions were not capable to invest research database for retrieval purpose in the same way to the public education institutions. It was therefore necessary to be prepared by introducing the integrated strategies for determining clear targets and directions for research works prior to moving forwards the research university. 3) The proposed strategies were V-A-L-U-E representing 5 keywords: (1) Vision Creatively; (2) Accreditation on Quality; (3) Utility of Research; (4) Linkage and Network; and (5) Efficiency of Management. This was to propose the overall strategy for developing Thai private education institutions towards research universities and be the case study of Siam University