Vietnamese Students to Benefit from Thailand’s MBA Scholarships for ASEAN

At least two Vietnamese students could benefit from grant scholarships offered next year by Thailand to total eight students in four ASEAN countries that also include Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, according to Professor Suthi Ekahitanonda, senior advisor of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration at Chulalongkorn University. The information was released at a news briefing on the scholarship program last week that also marked the participation of officials from the Thai Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. If more excellent students are found to meet the scholarship requirements, the limit admission could be raised to three or four scholarships for each country, said Rattima Mukdanan, director of the scholarship program. The scholarship, worth total $64,000, covers tuition fees and other expenses for 19 months of a Master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at the Thai university. The program requires recipients not to apply for any other international student exchange programs. Thai Consul General Panpimon Suwannapongse said that in nearly 40 years of diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Thailand have focused more on the economic aspect but less on human resource development and educational cooperation. Educational cooperation between Vietnam and Thailand started in 1992 through offering Thai language learning courses at Vietnam’s universities and the Sasin-Royal Thai Government Scholarship is offered to strengthen this cooperation. Now in its second year, the scholarship program is supported by the Sasin institute and Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA) under Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she said. Last year, four students from Myanmar and Cambodia were chosen for the MBA scholarship and no Vietnamese student was selected. (Saigon Times Daily Nov 20)