The Role of ASEAN Defense Universities inPartnering with Other Education Institutes:

A Case of Thailand’s National Defence Studies Institute (NDSI)

The Role of ASEAN Defense Universities

inPartnering withOther Education Institutes:

A Case of Thailand’s National Defence Studies Institute (NDSI)

COL. Akradej PRATEAPUSANOND

The recent upturn of interest in inter-partnership among education institutes, including universities, colleges, Think Tanks, NGOs, and private voluntary organizations (PVOs) has been motivated in part by the global expansion of complex environment that is becoming difficult to manageby normal means. Under this complicated context, what those—whoare following the interesting trend—shouldbe carefully concerned is thatvarious problems can easily be intertwined to each other and may cause a major obstacle, which could then lead to failure in their partnering programs. Collaboration and integration of effort and knowledge among education institutes are, therefore, at “the heart of the matter” and contribute to better outcomes and more satisfying success. For this reason, education institutes that aim for success in today’s environment have to continually adapt to understand and exploit new tools and approaches, particularly in this case—the academic partnering program—to meet new challenges for the twentieth-first century.

Under this subject matter, the importance of partnership among education institutes, Think Tanks, NGOs, and PVOs becomes clear. In the same vein, this paper is an attempt to exemplify the importance of partnering in education and research between an armed forces’ education institute and outside universities using the case of Thailand’s National Defence Studies Institute (NDSI).In this regard, first of all NDSI’s educational partnership policy is described in brief. Then, achievements and challenges of the programsare provided to offer practical examples of how NDSI has benefited from partnering with other education institutes. Finally, prospects of the policy and programs are explored in order to assess their future challenges and opportunities.

I.NDSI’s Education Partnership Policy

National Defence Studies Institute or NDSI is a government institute under the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, which is led by the Chief of Defence Forces. Established in 1990 with a notion of being the center for higher military studies and national security, NDSI has been assigned several essential missions including to give advice on the national security policies; to supervise educational activities and strategic researches; to contribute to military learning, history, archaeology, military museums, and national memorials; and to administer the Military Education Council of the Royal Thai Armed Forces.Also, as the Royal Thai Military’s advanced learning center, key focuses of NDSI are placed ondeveloping a system of advanced learning for the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters (RTArF Headquarters); enhancing the depth of military and strategic studies from basic training towards national strategic level; and developing an efficient strategy and a system of administration and supervision for the RTArF Headquarters.

To achieve all of its objectives, NDSI has stated firmly its education partnership policy from the beginning. At first, the policy was aimed to cultivate, nurture, and sustain cooperation between NDSI and other education institutes both within and outside of the Ministry of Defence. Subsequently, in 1993—threeyears after its establishment—NDSIwas granted an authorization to jointly open a course of study in Management with Kasetsart University (KU), one of the leading universities in Thailand. The policy’s principal approach is to foster the creation of partnerships between the Royal Thai Armed Forces’ education institutes and civilian universities and colleges in various research and education programs.The key recognition here is that, to lead the armed forces toward greater prosperity and stronger institution, it is important to increase personnel and information exchanges as well as to integrate effort across the continuum to influence best outcomes and practices.Beside that, the policy is also built upon the belief that the country would have the best chance to gain the greatest benefit, if education institutes work earnestly together as a coordinated network, united by a desire to share information and knowledge, and leverage their resources to jointly formulate new solutions for the facing complex challenges.

As it turn out, the stated policy has succeeded in making the NDSI and its sub-units, particularly the National Defence College (NDC), a premier education institute in the region. Today, as a result, the policy has been extended to cover more than ten research and education programs, including an international collaboration program between NDSI and the National Defense University of the People’s Republic of China.

II. Achievements and Challenges for NDSI’s Education Partnership Programs

To date, NDSI’s education partnership programs, which first launched with Kasetsart University in 1993, have evolved into a comprehensive programmethat addresses not only the education and research dimensions but also the knowledge and skills in working together among various institutes to meet new challenges of today’s complex environment. Beside the mentioned groundbreaking partnership programme between NDSI and Kasetsart University, two other prominent programmes worth mentioning here are: the partnership programme between NDSI and Dhurakij Pundit University (DPU)—a well known private university in Thailand—tooffer a course of study in Information Technology, and the education cooperation programme between NDSI and Burapha University (BU)—one of the nation’s widely acknowledged public universities—thataimed to jointly educate student in the field of Security Resources Management.Achievements and challenges for NDSI’s partnering in education with other institutes is reflected most in these three notable programs as illustrated below.

1.The partnership programme between NDSI and Kasetsart University. Started as early as 1993, this program—which offers a Master’s Degree in Business Administration—has flourish into a major part of NDSI’s education partnership programme. In term of success rate, it’s now has produced more than 16 cohorts and1,250 graduates to serve public sectors and private enterprises both at the local and international levels. In term of obligation, it has provided a superb setting for the education of a new kind of administrators who instilled with the sense of national defense and security.All in all, continuation of the program for more than 18 years with a great public appreciation is a key evidence of theprogram’s success.

As for the upcoming future, a mutual effort to extend program results, by working more in research activities and on curriculum issues, will contribute to improving the quality and strength of both NDSI and KU,as well as their partnership. In addition, the unifying theme throughout this partnership would help fulfill the nation’s objective in meeting with security challenges of the 21st century.

2.The partnership programme between NDSI and Dhurakij Pundit University. With success in the NDSI-KU Partnership Programme, the Ministry of Defence began to use the approach as a tool to strengthen the armed forces’ capability in meeting with the requirements of the 21st century. In 2002, due to the Ministry of Defence’s policy to encourage the education partnership programs between the armed forces’ education institutes andoutside universities both at the local and international level, NDSI has augmented its partnership program by providing an additional course in Information Technology (IT) with Dhurakij Pundit University—one of the renowned private universities in the country—which seek to educate students to become engineers and experts well-versed in ICT. The ultimate goal of theinitiativeis to enhance digital literacy and IT skillsamong armed forces’ personnel in order to effectively and efficiently respond to the society’s need both in the public and private sectors.Given this thrust, the program has till now graduated more than 200proficient Master’s Degree studentsfor the armed forces and other sectors.

Recently, there is an effort from the university’s side of the partnership to greater the success by delivering more than one class a year as initially offered. It is noteworthy that major challenges for the expansion and sustainability of the program could be basically achieved through an aggressive student recruitment plan matched by an extensive developing effort that focused all on faculty, facilities as well as outcomes based on student needs. Notwithstanding, the program has received excellent recognition as having a high level of achievement to the extent that most of the graduates are considered to be proficiently educated in IT field meeting or exceeding the national standards.

3.The education cooperation programme between NDSI and Burapha University. In 2004, as a consequence of success in the previous two programs, NDSI took another step towards becoming a center of excellence in defense and security field by embarking on an ambitious plan to jointly providea program of study in Security Resources Managementwith Burapha University, one of the nation’s widely acknowledged public universities. Thespecial designed program is distinguished from previous efforts in several respectsranging from curriculum developing to education delivering. With this program, instead of taking only from the outside in, NDSI has begun to share its own intellectual and knowledgeby introducing and teaching such subjects as National Strategic Planning, National Security and Public Policy, and Security Resources Management in order to lead the country as well as the armed forces toward greater prosperity and stronger institutions. The main purpose of thisprogressive collaboration are two-fold. One is to contribute the NDSI’s essential knowledge, skill, and insight experiencesconcerning defense and security studies to the public for various professionals both in security and management fields. The other is to enhance the potential and strength of the institute, education personnel, and newly conducted research and development programsso that the primary objective in meeting the requirements of the 21st century can be achieved.

Since its inception, this unique program has graduated almost150scholars in the field of defense and security studies. In addition, the program has also produced a number of research papers relating to security resources management and policy.To take a step further towards becoming a center of excellence in defense and security field, NDSI in cooperation with BU have planned to offer the first doctorate program in Strategy and Security Studies for all qualified professionals who are interested in succeeding and to be leaders in today’s complex environment. The success of this upcoming challenging programme would certainly help fortify thepotential and strength of the NDSI, and also lead the country toward greater prosperity in years to come.

III.Prospects of NDSI’s Education Partnership Policy and Programs

All in all, NDSI’s Education Partnership Programme represents a new mechanism for inter-cooperation between an armed forces’ education institute and outside universities in various education and research fields. The long-standing continuation of the programs, together with the highly praised by the public and admired by scholars and the overall country’s security sectors in its education and researches indicate that the programme is indeed filling the nation and the armed forces’ desire to meet new challenges of the 21st century. In addition, it continues to gain a great deal of acceptance and support from the education community both inthe public and private sectors. Still, NDSI needs to be engaged in more specialized areas of defense and security at the graduate and doctoral levels. More than that, to survive in this era of complex environment and ensure optimum objective performance, the collaboration effort needs to be extended further to the international level. In the end, the prospect and future of the policy therefore lookpromising considering the currenthigh acceptance from the public; high support from the government, armed forces, and education community; partnership and collaboration opportunities; as well as ever-increasing interest in the area of defense and security studies.

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