Topic: Stamford International University, Hua Hin

[exsiam]

New nominee for your Hall of Shame.Tip of the iceberg here provided by teachers still on board this Titanic and helping to rearrange the deck chairs, as well as those who are already safely in the lifeboats.

This is really a shame because there were times a year or two ago, when Stamford seemed to have a bright future as a small, quality school in a beautiful natural setting. We had terrific students from many countries and a great faculty working together to solve problems and to make it a happy productive place to teach and to study. 

Enter the dragon! New president. New administration. Totally clueless.The current President has been given a new car and a new luxury home at VIP condos, even though money is tight. As president of this “international” University he is unable to speak, read or write English. He puts down women at every opportunity and treats the entire staff and faculty like his personal slaves.Talk to any woman on the staff about this. Three of their Thai mid-level managers quit in disgust during the semester.

Last semester four senior faculty, including a long-time dean, received letters that their contracts would not be renewed. No reason. They were left hanging for a month making appeals etc before their contracts were renewed. This semester, five teachers out of a full time faculty of 12-15 have been not-renewed, fired or have resigned. No reasons given in any case. One teacher has been given a contract with the salary TBA! The proposed schedule of classes for next term is a shambles. It offers totally false information. It lists teachers who have been fired or who have quit. Students are not being told that many of their teachers have left and that the classes they are registering for are all TBA.

The remaining faculty are to a person looking for other jobs.

TIT  and this University is now totally Thai! Faculty are not asked or consulted about anything. The orders come from on high and you just follow them without question.  The administrators don't want to hear from you about anything. Everything is done without advance notice. For example, the schedule of classes for Term 1 was not finished until Friday, June 22nd and classes began Monday, June 25th. That left just a weekend for many teachers to prepare. It left many students scrambling to change their class choices. 

Enrollment has dropped dramatically and now numbers about 150 (nobody knows for sure. . .its that kind of place)  (Well below that required of a university.) As the students have realized how bad things are, they leave. In a time period when international enrollment had been at its best in the past, there are now NO foreign student applications ( they stiffed their foreign agents on their fees) and only six interested Thai students as of this date. The total student number will be even lower next term. The consensus is that the place will go under within six months.

They are actively recruiting teachers to replace those they have let go. If you contemplate applying there, please talk to one or two of the remaining teachers and get the details.

[Minxlady]

Thanks. Interesting and informative.

About 2 yrs ago I wanted to get out of BKK. I saw ads for Stamford. I have the required quals and background. Hua Hin sounded nice/relaxed. I was interested.

I was WARNED not to go there. Despite all of the USA hype and name, it sounded like a real screw-up down there. I think that there is another branch in the south??? Just as bad.

Sounds like all the chickens are coming home to roost.

M

[bomha]

There must be a 'critical mass' needed to have a university student body.  Surely the number is way above 150.  If the information in the opening post is correct, I do not see how Stamford can last through the term. 

I am confused.  Over on ThaiVisa dot com, there is a closed thread about the other make believe university in the Hua Hin area, Webster.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=126639&st=0&#entry1385205 

Does this mean that the city of Hua Hin kills universities?

[Nemesis]

I don't know if size matters. 

Back at my first university, we had all of 600 students and it was a university, a state university. The head of the English Department hated the decision to change from a college to a university because the change was in name only.

The college I got my four year from has like 20,000 students. Go figure?

 


 

[anyonefortennis]

There must be a 'critical mass' needed to have a university student body.  Surely the number is way above 150.  

In terms of economics, yes, in terms of educational standards, I'd have to say no. The number of students is what administrators the world over worry about, the quality of education is secondary..........unfortunately.

All establishments play the numbers game, it's what economics demands.........but high student recruitment does not = quality education.

The OP made some great points, and unfortunately many of them are common place.
 

As president of this international University he is unable to speak, read or write English. He puts down women at every opportunity and treats the entire staff and faculty like his personal slaves.

I'm gonna get myself hung, but here goes anyway...........making such references actually detracts from the main point of your post, it kinda makes one think you've got a personal agenda.

One teacher has been given a contract with the salary TBA!

I'd suggest that the lecturer puts a match to the contract as soon as.

[/quote]

   The orders come from on high and you just follow them without question. 

I'd suggest those who are in the economic comfort zone not only question the orders, but tell the order giver to stick em up their ar8e.

[bomha]

Like Nemesis, I once attended a very small uni of about 600 students in the backwater, full time.  Some courses were only offered once out of every four semesters, and had ten students with a real professor.  I do not see how you can run a four year undergraduate uni with 150 or 180 students.  Your English department is going to have one full time prof; your art and music dept. will be part timers; some academic disciplines will be nonexistent.  It's more like those state unis that have tiny remote campuses out beyond a city of 40,000.  Such as (making this one out of thin seaside air), Univ. of Wales at Caenarfon, Holyhead Branch. You might get quality there, but Oxbridge graduates are not willing to have such a school on their CV. 

I met a young man who attended either Webster or Stamford.  He was a 16 year old high school dropout from rural remote America, and said his classes were boring and way too easy. 

If the OP is correct about Stamford (and I am still confused that nearby, Webster is described as having the same crisis), its days are numbered.  It won't look good on your CV: "I taught at this place until we killed it."

[retiredstillteaching]

I had an experience with Stamford International University, Hua Hin, in March of last year, 2006. The secretary to the Dean of Academics said to me on the phone that the dean had authorized her to offer me a position on the faculty to teach English. She said the dean liked my academic credentials, my experience etc. I'd never visited the campus nor did I interview; everything was discussed by phone.

I remember well that that was on a Thursday. In my next, follow up contact, the following Monday I called and the same secretary who then said that if they had any faculty position available they'd be back in contact with me. The End, or so I'd thought.

However, in June I got an email from some coordinator at the university offering a part-time position, then received another email from the same person withdrawing the offer. I suggested to him (by email) that he seek professional help.

Regardless of which administration it was, the present one or a previous one, I found the place to be TIT weird.

[ajarn1970]

A good friend of mine worked there when it was an envious place to be some years ago, but soon after his departure he found out from remaining teachers that salaries were being dropped as well as standards; with changes in management / administration. Unfortunately these 'power rotations' also bring upheaval in some cases (even on a national level, case in point Sep 2006 coup).

Maybe Thaksin Shinawatra should be running the place.....they'll be back in the black in no time!!! 

Stamford's advertising in the BKK post for staff 

I say give it a try.........What on Earth could go wrong? 

[kumantong]

Stamford started in Malaysia.

It has nothing to do with the US.

It does have an exchange with some 3rd tier school called Schiller University, located in Florida.

Perhaps you were thinking of Webster.  I sincerely hope you weren't thinking of Stanford.

[anyonefortennis]

Tong's quite right, Stamford did start as joint venture between Malaysia and Singapore, going by the name of Stamford College, of which you can find a branch in Hat Yai.

Stamford International University was then established in a collaboration between Thailand and Malaysia, not the US. Although I believe they have some kinda of tie up with Schiller University in the US, what that collaboration involves I have no idea, other than student exchange to other Schiller campuses. I've also got no idea regarding the reputation of Schiller.................any Americans on here know anything about Schiller?

[bomha]

I belled the only Yanks I know who will answer a call at this hour.  They never heard of Schiller.  One yank said there's a big evangelist in California, Robert Schuller.  Another Yank said a shiller is a girl at a bar, or a hawker who's dishonest. 

Whilst we were talking, I also asked them about Webster in Missouri.  Never heard of it, either.  I get the idea that the entire country is chockablock filled with unis at every corner.  They both said that even if Shiller or Webster were half decent lower ranked unkown American unis, that means nothing about what a 'sister' school in Thailand would be like.    If the high school dropout I met is any example of Webster and Stamford students (he thought the courses were way too easy), I will assume that Chulalongdong U. in Bangkok is not in any danger of being surpassed in its ranking as 989th best uni in the world, by some upstart junior colleges/polytechnics in Hua Hin.

[kumantong]

There are a lot of unis like Schiller or Webster in certain parts of the US.  They offer a limited range of practical degrees and for what they are, they're not necessarily bad.  However, world class unis they are not.

I agree that a connection to one of these schools means means nothing in terms of what standards you could expect at a Thai campus.

[brian_q]

Any questions about the legitimacy of Webster University--not the subject of this thread--might be answered by reviewing their website. I am disturbed that posters to this forum seem so willing to lump one in with the other.

Brian

[kumantong]

Don't think I'd give much credence to a school's website in terms of sorting out what's really going on over there.   

But Brian is correct that the subject of this thread is properly Stamford Hua Hin.   

Best to take careful aim before