The Office of Higher Education Commission (Ohec) plans to allow teachers to transfer between universities nationwide to solve substandard course problems.
Ohec secretary-general Supat Champatong yesterday said the measure would help ease problems in the long term as 90% of substandard courses suffer from a lecturer shortage and a failure to employ enough qualified instructors.
Earlier this week, Ohec listed what it called "substandard courses" on its website. The list contained 182 courses that failed to reach commission standards for the 2015 and 2016 academic years.
Of them, 68 were for bachelor degrees, 89 for master degrees, and the rest for doctorates.
A total of 9,099 courses on offer at 40 private and state higher education institutes were assessed.
According to Ohec, Ramkhamhaeng University had the largest number of substandard courses (40), which prompted complaints of unfair treatment by the university.
It was followed by Chiang Rai Rajabhat University (22), Dhurakij Pundit University (16), Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University (11) and Prince of Songkla University (8).
"About 2% of courses offered at universities nationwide between 2015-2016 were substandard.
However 90% of the problems we found were not serious issues, such as a shortfall in lecturers due to retirements and sabbatical leave in the middle of a semester," Mr Supat said.
He said he understood it takes time for universities to find replacements for retired lecturers and those who resign in the middle of a semester.
He thought that if Ohec relaxes its rules to allow teaching personnel to also teach at other universities offering the same or similar courses, universities would be able to temporarily fill gaps while looking to find permanent new lecturers.
"For example, university A has five lecturers for its accounting course which is the minimum required by Ohec and university B has 10 lecturers in the same field.
"If one of the five lecturers of university A resigns unexpectedly, university B could lend one of its lecturers to university A until it can find a replacement which should not be more than one semester or four months. This is what we are planning to do," he said.
Mr Supat said another frequent problem found by Ohec especially at master's and PhD levels is that some lecturers have to review too many thesis projects because universities do not have enough qualified instructors.
According to Ohec, a thesis adviser can only advise 15 students at a time, so he or she can control the quality of paperwork.
He said universities can fix this problem easily by adjusting the ratio between thesis advisers and students to be guided by Ohec.
"If we can fix these two problems, 90% of substandard course problems will be solved instantly," he said.
Mr Supat said he will invite all universities to a meeting to discuss the new measure next month, adding both public and private universities will be allowed to join the scheme.
"Ohec cannot order universities to be part of this measure, but we can seek their cooperation," he said.
According to Ohec's latest data, of the 182 courses that failed to reach commission standards for the 2015 and 2016 academic years, 59 have been closed, 68 have been barred from receiving new students, 53 have been given 90 days to improve, and four have already been fixed.
On Wednesday, Ramkhamhaeng University rector Wutisak Lapcharoensap said he considered suing Ohec after his university was named as having 40 substandard courses by the agency.
Mr Wutisak accused Ohec of promulgating incorrect information.
In response to this, Mr Supat said naming the universities which fail to meet standards is a necessary step to ensure students get the education they deserve.
