In death, as in life, Chai-anan Samudavanija always outshines. More than two decades after he left an academic career for policy work and a public intellectual role, Chai-anan's scholarly output is still cited more than any other social scientist. His passing, at 74, reflects Thailand's circuitous political trajectory and the shortcomings of the country's higher education. Until Thai academic standards are better incentivised and upgraded, few scholars are likely to scale international heights of scholarship and thought leadership anywhere near Chai-anan's achievements.
Accessing academic search engines on the internet, such as Google scholar, will display some 1,130 hits for Chai-anan. No other academic expert in the fields of law and political science in Thailand match that level. It means that Chai-anan's works have been mentioned in other people's writing and research that many times over the years, demonstrating a scholarly reach and global intellectual influence.
At top-ranking universities with a strong research base and education standards, citations in internationally recognised academic search engines count substantially. Thus, it is easy to see why Thailand's university rankings have been sliding downwards in leading international surveys.
