In the past decade, education has become ever-more personalized, ever-more hybrid. With new digital models emerging across the board — in classrooms, research labs, and administrative offices — intelligence and the cloud are increasingly critical, supported by fresh innovations in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that are utterly transforming the education industry. According to a survey on Thailand’s digital life in 2020 and 2021, Thai people’s use of e-commerce has increased from 37% to 76%, and the ratio of people who work remotely rises from 17% to 30%. At the same time, the cloud adoption rate by Thai corporates has rapidly increased from 26% to 70%. By 2030, digital economy is estimated to account for 30% of Thailand’s overall GDP.
The fundamental role of digital education has been further highlighted during the sudden outbreak of pandemic. In fact, over the last year or so, about 1.5 billion students — 90% of all primary, secondary, and university level students worldwide — have been unable to attend their schools or campuses for at least some period of time. The urgent need for more equal, accessible, and advanced education resources has now become a global concern.
As Thailand is making inspiring strides towards becoming the ASEAN digital hub, this period of disruption has been transformative. As Prof. Dr.Supot Teachavorasinskun, Dean of Engineering Faculty at Chulalongkorn University emphasized In Huawei CLOUD & CONNECT 2022 (HCC), “Nowadays, the physical and the cyber world are integrate together. In order for us to deeply into the knowledge, we have to work with Huawei and other partners to integrate the digital world into every knowledge aspect for the lecturers and students. This is unavoidable.”
This trend has been further echoed by Mr.Kamol Keatruangkamala, Ph.D., Executive Vice President for Information Technology at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. During HCC event, he stressed that “COVID accelerates the transformation. If we still think in the same way, in 10 years, we won’t be able to maintain the university. So we have to disrupt ourselves with innovative technologies from leading companies like Huawei.”
Huawei’s Commitment to Digitalizing Thailand’s Education Industry
Higher education in Thailand has become increasingly popular, and ICT investment has also increased significantly. As a committed ICT partner and social value contributor, Huawei has launched the “Seeds for the Future” program in Thailand for the first time in 2008. After over 13 years of efforts and partnerships, more than 215 students from Thai leading universities have participated in this program. In 2019, Huawei ASEAN Academy (Thailand) was established to further support the visionary Thailand 4.0 strategy, which so far has provided upskilling and reskilling trainings for over 41,000 local ICT professionals as well as over 1,300 SMEs.
Apart from contributing to a thriving digital talent ecosystem, Huawei has provided a number of joint solutions – such as smart campus, smart classroom, and online education solutions – for more than 10 renowned educational institutions and universities across Thailand, including top ranking universities in Thailand, Chiang Mai University, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) and Srinakharinwirot University (SWU). These solutions have ensured that learning never ceases, even during the pandemic.
In February 2019, the SWU campus network upgrade was completed. Huawei provided high-bandwidth and low-latency campus networks to improve the wireless network coverage and campus security, promoting infrastructure-based digital development, and setting a benchmark for university campuses across the country.
At the Huawei HCC 2022 event, Asst.Prof. Dr. Prasert Kanthamanon, Senior Vice President for Administrative Affairs and Chief Information Officer, KMUTT shared their collaboration with Huawei to make “KMUTT4Life” a reality. According to Dr. Prasert, based on Huawei support, the university will build a living lab to support endless learning not only for schools but also for anyone. Mr.Sanya Setpityakul, Chief Information Officer and Assistant Vice President of Dhurakij Pundit University added that by Huawei’s expertise builds an important platform to maintain education in the video conference classroom, building sustainable and effective capacity.
Grow in Thailand, Contribute to Thailand
As Mr. Abel Deng, CEO of Huawei Thailand emphasized, by promoting proactive collaboration with the country’s top educational institutions, Huawei advocates an ICT Talent Ecosystem that will benefit the country’s journey to Thailand 4.0. Dr.Pattanasak Mongkolwat, Dean of ICT at Mahidol University expressed appreciation for this strategy by stating that “Huawei has added practical ICT knowledge and practices to our ICT Faculty expertise. I believed this will enhance our students’ ability to work and excel in the real world scenarios.”
By powering Thailand’s digital education and ICT talent cultivation, Huawei Thailand commits to hopes to set a standard for a technology-enhanced education and to provide more technical and skillful aptitude, more advanced technologies, and more support to innovation and entrepreneurship, in order to power a connected and intelligent Thailand.
Source: Carl Byoir & Associates
