The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University rankings for 2018 are out, and the news is again not good for Thailand. Compared to the rest of the world, Thailand's top universities don't stand in good stead. Nor do they rank well compared to their peers in the region.
No wonder Thailand's structural economic challenges persist with dim prospects. Apart from higher education, another indicator that speaks to Thailand's inability to boost economic development through labour productivity and political reconciliation through decreasing income inequality are depressed wages. There are many avenues to promote Thailand's economic upgrading but these two are salient.
First, the QS rankings do not bode well for Thailand. Thailand's top three universities, namely Chulalongkorn, Mahidol and Thammasat, continue to languish, with downside trends. When it was entered into the QS rankings, Chulalongkorn came in at 201. Since then, it has declined steadily to 271. Over the same period, Mahidol began at 255 but stands at 380. Thammasat started in 2012 at 561 but has consistently been in the 600s since.
