Higher Education in Thailand*

ABTRACT- This study presents a survey on the status of Information Technology (IT) and IT strategic planning in both public and private higher educational institutions in Thailand. Questionnaires were sent to selected personnel from 18 public institutions and 16 private institutions. A total of 112 persons constituting 82.4 percent of the population responded. The findings revealed that there was great interest in using IT in both academic and administrative areas. One of the problems of IT management in Thai higher educational institutions was determined to be the lack of planning. Some important obstacles encountered when developing plans were financial and IT manpower problems. Nevertheless, the findings of the study identified a major factor in that Thai institutions lack understanding of how to develop an IT strategic plan. The data indicated that only half of the representatives of Thai institutions made use of an IT strategic plan but it seems that even then components and processes of many were incomplete. To support the development of IT strategic planning in Thai institutions, an IT strategic planning process for Thai higher educational institutions was proposed in this study. This process was developed, based on the perceptions of the administrative and the IT professional groups, as well as a review of the literature. It is hoped that this process would be used as a guideline to enable planners to develop IT strategic plans in Thai higher educational institutions