Abstract:
This research aims to explore the current conditions, employment problems and returns of social science graduates, to analyze the rate of social and individual returns of social science graduates, to make the comparative analysis of the rate of return on investment of the graduates in each field of study within social science, and to develop the strategies for the production of bachelors degree in social science graduates by analyzing the rate of return on investment. The population and sample group for this research are 450 social science graduates in 1) Political Science, 2) Laws, 3) Education, 4) Business Administration and 5) Economics of public and private higher education institutions in Bangkok and vicinity, who work in the companies listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and reside in Bangkok area, 9 top management executive officers of private organizations and 9 managers of human resources departments of large, medium and small organizations, 5 senior experts in economics, 5 deans of 5 faculties and 2 high-ranking executive officers of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC), The totals are 12 senior experts and 9 senior experts in the examination of strategies. The research instrument include the questionnaire for social science graduates, the interview form for human resource managers, top management executive officers and senior experts, the survey form on the education costs and the evaluation form on the viability of the strategies for the production of bachelors degree in social science graduates. Meanwhile, content analysis, frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, regression analysis and analysis of the rate of return on investment are employed in data analysis. According to the research results, the discrepancy between the employers demand and higher education institutes production of graduates leads to the oversupply of graduates in labor market. Besides, the age, gender, marital status, academic performance, size of the organization in which they work, type of higher education institutions and field of study are the elements affecting the rate of return of graduates with a statistical significance of 0.01. The public higher education institutions also have a higher rate of social and individual return on investment of social science graduates when compared to the private higher education institutions. Meanwhile, each field of study in social science is compared in light of the individual return on investment. The highest rate of return at 33-43% per year is found in the field of Business Administration, while the rate of return in the field of Economics, Laws, Political Science and Education are 33-42%, 30-33%, 25-30% and 26-27% per year, respectively. The strategies for the production of Bachelors degree in social science graduates consist of important organizational strategies: 1) The strategies for social science education management based on the rate of return on education investment, 2) The strategies for the promotion of the quality of graduates to enhance their international competitiveness, 3) The strategies for the development of the efficiency in the administration of higher education institutions, and 4) The strategies for the coordination between higher education institutions and other organizations. Furthermore, there are also 21 planning strategies and 45 projects/activities.