Chiang Rai aims to be regional education hub

By Augustine Anthuvan | Posted: 23 September 2010

CHIANG RAI: Thailand's northernmost province of Chiang Rai is banking on becoming a regional education hub thanks to increased highway connectivity, the route 3 highway which is a north-south economic corridor that connects Kunming to Chiang Rai.

One of the Kingdom's fasting growing institutions, Mae Fah Luang University, is doing just that.

A key underlying concept that makes the Mae Fah Luang campus different from all others in Thailand is that the university is located inside a park.

With a large complex of modern, state-of-the-art buildings and set amid a spectacular setting of mountains and trees, it offers more than 10,000 students an environment and culture that's conducive to learning.

Mae Fah Luang University president Ted Tesprateep said: "(On a) government level, we have signed a kind of MOU that Kunming and Chiang Rai province is a sister province, (and) that we (will work closely together on) different levels.

"...We also have some MOU (involving) Mae Fah Luang University and Yunnan Normal University as well".

Apart from the Southern Chinese province of Yunnan, students also come from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

This makes the campus a regional research hub where education is fast becoming the medium for peace.

Incidentally Mae Fah Luang University is the only public university in Thailand that uses English as medium of instruction.

Lecturers and students are living in a region where the struggle is to balance the realities of economic incentives, development and conservation.

Mae Fah Luang University school of sciences lecturer David Morell said: "We are working with individual villagers on things like biochar to deal with green waste issues in Laos.

"We are (also) working with individual companies in Chiang Rai to build a sustainable green Chiang Rai and deal with climate change issues".

Mae Fah Luang University student Noutthong Alounthong, who is from Laos, said: "I hope that I can go back to work in the corridor area of the two national parks in the southern part of Laos.

"(I hope to) work with the community there, (and help) improve the livelihood and reduce the poverty (of the people there)".

With agriculture being the mainstay in Chiang Rai province, ensuring that on-campus research connects with the community has become a priority.

Natural Resources & Environmental Management director Hansa Sanguannoi said replacing insecticides with sustainable agriculture was one example how Mae Fah Luang University was making a difference in Northern Thailand.

"...vermi composting is (the use of a type of) earthworm to digest organic waste," Assoc prof Sanguannoi said, adding that Mae Fah Luang University would be setting up a demonstration to show how this is done.

-CNA/wk