October 8, 2002

Thai college teachers coming to ISU

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Eight college teachers from Thailand will spend two weeks at Indiana State University as part of an exchange agreement signed Monday by the presidents of Indiana State and Rajabhat Institute-Surat Thani, one of several teacher education colleges in Thailand undergoing transformation as universities. [see photos]  [audio]

From Oct. 14 through Oct. 25, the teachers will study modern management practices in ISU’s School of Business. Topics to be addressed include marketing and advertising, operations and strategic planning, teaching innovations, management and information systems, accounting and finance.

“Indiana State University has a great reputation in education. It is a great opportunity and honor to work together,” Pranee Petchkaew, president of Rajabhat Institute-Surat Thani, said in signing a three-year educational and cultural exchange agreement with ISU.

The agreement represents another step in ISU’s efforts to increase global awareness among its students and provide new opportunities for research, said ISU President Lloyd W. Benjamin III.

Thailand is “a country that is trying to undergo significant transformation to help care for its people, to stop the brain drain, to grow itself to be a good competitor in the global economy,” Benjamin said. “Here is a country that recognizes that it’s future is really bound up with how effectively it manages its educational system.”

The exchange agreement is an expansion of an existing relationship ISU has with Thailand. In 2001, Benjamin visited Thailand and Al Czyzweski, associate professor of accounting at ISU, helped establish an MBA program at Rajabhat Institute-Bangkok. Last spring, two Thai librarians visited Indiana State.

The Gongaware Center for Insurance and Risk Management in ISU’s School of Business will sponsor a two-week summer study tour of Thailand in 2003.

In recent weeks, ISU has been especially active on the international front. On Sept. 23, Benjamin traveled to Morocco to sign a collaboration agreement with Hassan II University. A delegation from Liaoning University in China visited the ISU campus Sept. 16-18 to discuss expansion of an existing partnership.

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Contact:
Gaston Fernandez, executive director, ISU International Affairs Center,
(812) 237-4391 or ascfern@isugw.indstate.edu

Writer:
Dave Taylor, ISU Public Affairs
(812) 237-3743 or devtaylo@isugw.indstate.edu

ISU Public Affairs:
(812) 237-3773 or http://isunews.indstate.edu