Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to study the development of planning process, to analyze planning process, and to study problems and obstacles of planning process of King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok. CIPP model developed by D.L. Stufflebeam was used for the evaluation of the 6th and 7th Higher Education Development Plans of the Institute according to the UNESCO planning process. Data were collected from four sources: documentary, interviews, check lists and questionnaires. The interviews and questionnaires were conducted with administrators and those involved with the planning process of the Institute. The study covered two periods: before the Institute was established (1959-1986) and after the Institute was established (1987-1993). It was found that the Institute has planning process since it was North Bangkok Technical School, Ministry of Education, from 1959 and was supported in both financial and planning by the Federal Republic of Germany until 1989. In 1984, the school was established as a campus of King Mongkuts Institute of Technology and transferred to Ministry of University Affairs. In 1986, it became King Mongkuts Institute of Technology North Bangkok separated from the other campuses. Since then, it formulated the 6th and 7th Higher education Plans by itself. There were no official planning committee in laying the 6 the plan. Only the administrators assigned each agency to lay plans and submit them on the due date. In the 7th plan, the planning committee were officially appointed but they didnt scrutinize the plans before submitting to the ministry. However, the direction of the education management was relevant to manpower development in Science and technology to serve the industrial development. The analysis of planning process showed that there were no stages of planning, feasibility studies or screening of plans. At the plan implementation stage, no measure was set to ensure the operation of the plan. At the evaluation stage, there were lacks of clear monitoring and evaluation system. These causes less and delay of plan implementation, i.e. 64% of projects for establishing new agencies, and 22% of projects for initiating new majors of study were implemented. For the problems and obstacles in the planning process, it was found that 41% of planning committee especially of the 6th plan were not ready to do the job and lacked planning experience. This problem was lessened in the 7 the plan since up to 76% of planners had more experience. Another problem were discontinuation of policies and plans due to the change of senior administrators, no consultations among administrators and implementing agencies in preparing plans or projects, lacks of evaluation and monitoring systems, and seminars to rectify problems and obstacles.