Abstract:
This research aims to examine the concepts and operations of world class universities; to study the current state and readiness of Thailands national research universities towards world class universities; to analyze the gaps of best practice between world class universities and Thailands national research universities; and to propose the road map for Thailands national research universities towards world class universities. The sample consists of 6 senior experts (from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China) of world class universities in the list of top 100 universities, 18 high-ranking administrators of national research universities (presidents or vice presidents and presidents or members of the university council), 177 policy-level administrators of national research universities and 12 senior experts. The research tool includes the content analysis form, interview form, questionnaire, and checklist of draft road map, while the content analysis, frequency, mean, average and standard deviation are used in the data analysis. The research results can be summarized as follows: 1. With respect to the concepts and operations of world class universities, their research is highly innovative and recognized as the worlds leading research. The research-based instruction is applied in all disciplines. Their endowment fund is huge. The university administrators also have the leadership skills and are visionary and creative with the capability to encourage the personnel to work in an effective and efficient manner. The social enterprise activities are conducted too. 2. With regard to the current state and readiness of Thailands national research universities, it is found that the following 4 aspects: environments; high-ranking administrators; faculty, researchers, students and internationalization; and collaboration networks have a high level of mean ( x = 3.89, 3.75, 3.69 และ 3.52, respectively). Meanwhile, the aspects of income and budget as well as of academic excellence are at an intermediate level ( x = 3.28, 3.27, respectively). Few endowment funds have been established. There is only the establishment of some small ad-hoc funds, while the alumni fundraising campaigns are not much pursued. The university structure should not adhere to the bureaucracy. Besides, the universitys disciplines of expertise should be focused, together with the creation of culture of excellence. Also, one of the sustainable sources of income for the university is to conduct the research and academic services in response to needs of public and private sectors. 3. According to the analysis of gaps of best practice, the gaps between Thailands national research universities and world class universities are found in several aspects, for example, number of publications, number of being cited, number of citations per publication, weight of reference and the research published in collaboration with worldwide higher education institutes. 4. The proposed road map for national research universities towards world class universities within a time frame of 10-15 years comprise the vision, goal, mission, 4 strategies (P.O.E.M), 7 desired objectives, 14 tactics, 36 indicators and 60 projects/activities. The 4 strategies are as follows: Strategy 1: Partnership & Collaboration at the Domestic and International Levels. Strategy 2: Optimizing Talent it refers to the selection and development of research-related potentials and knowledge of faculty, personnel and students with self-adaptation capability towards the University of the Future. Strategy 3: Engagement in Research the research and the universitys core missions in light of academic affairs, instructions, and academic services are linked for the realization of the international-level excellence. Strategy 4: Mechanism & Efficiency Management the mechanisms of good governance and management are created.