SUT Leads the Other 3 Thai WACE Global Partners to Host WACE 20^th World Conference in Thailand in 2017

At the WACE Board of Directors Meeting on June 12^th, 2016 prior to WACE 2^nd International Research Symposium organised by the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) represented by the Rector, Professor Prasart Suebka, representing the other 3 Thai WACE Global Partners (i.e. Sripatum University, Siam University, and Western Digital Thailand) in collaboration with the Thai Association for Cooperative Education (TACE) made a proposal to WACE to host WACE 20^th World Conference in Thailand in 2017. This proposal is hailed as an innovative proposal since it is the first time in the history of WACE that the host is not an individual institution, but instead the national effort of a country, Thailand.

Presenting the proposal to the Board, Professor Wichit Srisa-an, Chairman of SUT Council and President of TACE, planned to organise the World Conference from June 4^th to 8^th, 2017 with the Opening of the 20^th World Conference to coincide with the Opening of the 8^th Thai Cooperative Education Day on June 6^th, which will be hosted by Chiang-Mai University (CMU) and other universities in the Upper Northern Cooperative Education Development Network of Thailand. In addition, it is also possible that some other local universities might offer to join the hosting as well. The combination of the openings of the two events together will increase the visibility of WACE in Thailand and the visibility of Thai Cooperative Education activities to WACE international community.

Thanks to Professor Wichit’s promotion of the benefit of the hosting, some government bodies have also voiced their support to co-host the World Conference as well. This alliance will strengthen and add more dimensions to the academic activities of the event. These potential collaborators are the Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC), the Office of Vocational Education Commission (OVEC), the ASEAN Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), and Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI).

At the end, this proposal received much praise from the Board members. The event has been marked on the calendar, and everyone is looking forward to visiting Thailand to attend the next World Conference.