Sweet Home Thailand

I was finally able to meet one of the chairs from the undergraduate business school to discuss potential partnerships with JSUthis morning after our original meeting was canceled (death in the family) and attempting to coordinate schedules.  I ended up meeting for about an hour with Mrs. Radha Sirianukul, the chairperson of the department of international business management (IBM), along with the director of international affairs in his office.  She seemed very interested as well in whatever type of relationship that JSU would be willing to pursue.  I suggested that it may make sense to start off slow with student and/or faculty exchanges, and then in the next year(s) that we can evaluate its success and discuss enhancing the relationship with other arrangements, such as with joint programs/degrees.  One of the things that became clear early in the meeting is the need for specific details regarding the programs at JSU.  I had already shared with Mrs. Radha the JSU college of commerce and business administration as well as the MCIS department’scurriculum listings to compare with ABAC’s IBM program (ABAC has over 9,000 undergraduate business students), but there were other details related to costs that I will need to provide that will help in future discussions.  Costs are obviously a prohibiting factor for students from Thailand (but very good exchange rates for JSU students) so I need to provide ballpark estimateson details such as the cost per credit hour, accommodation expenses, and living expenses.  If I can get these figures along with comparisons from other US universities (to show how much more affordable a JSU education would be), that could go a long way in selling our program to both the administrators and students of ABAC.  From the JSU Website, there are varying numbers out there, so I would appreciate any assistance in tracking this information down.  If you have ideas for other information that would be useful to share, please let me know.  Corresponding statistics from ABAC are also being compiled by Mrs. Radha and I will share those once I get them.

In other discussions, one possibility that the chair seemed very interested in was in hosting some sort of “academic exchange with industrial exposure”.  This would be a group tour of several students that would visit JSU for a two-week stay and involve them attending JSU classes, JSU research presentations, industry-guest presentations, and tours of local businesses (either around JSU or in Birmingham and Atlanta).  I imagine these events could be coordinated with other JSU campus events (e.g., guest lectures) and/or student organizations (e.g., tours of local industry, tours with other international students).  The benefit from ABAC’s perspective is that this would offer a low-cost alternative to year-long exchanges and could be a good starting point to initiating the relationship between JSU and ABAC as well as get a good “buzz” about future students traveling to study at JSU.  This would also work good for ABAC as this could be either offered either as a separate 1-credit course (a seminar in international business) or as part of a midterm project for an international business course.  All undergraduate ABAC business majors are required to conduct individual research as part of their degree and a research paper discussing this “academic exchange with industrial exposure” could satisfy part of that requirement.  Some some key questions that resulted from this exchange, again, were what costs would be involved with operating this type of exchange?  Is it possible to secure student housing on-campus for a group of students or is this type of exchange even of interest to JSU?  What time of year would this be best to conduct this academic exchange?  ABAC has school all-year long, so I suspect the best time for JSU to host such an exchange would be in the summer (June-August) when it might be much easier to secure student housing and when faculty (like myself) are likely to have open schedules to conduct and participate.  The first semester (of a trimester) for ABAC runs from the end of May until the beginning of September.

Continuing our discussion about exchanges, the director of international affairs brought up the relationship that ABAC has with Loyola College of Maryland and how the partnership has been in place for 18 years now.  The director mentioned that Loyola College sends a large group every year to study at ABAC and how their students have had nothing but positive experiences during their time here.  A partnership that ABAC has with Loyola College is that they offer about 15-20 Loyola College graduates from undergraduate programs like in English and Psychology as well as MBA students to teach at ABAC for 1 year with free room and board, round-trip airfare expenses, and a salary (similar to my current arrangement).  If this is of interest to JSU, ABAC might be willing to extend these opportunities to JSU graduates.  I would like to know your thoughts on this type of partnership and if this type of arrangement is worth pursing.  I had the time to finally to visit ABAC’s undergraduate campus (Bang Na) last week and I was simply amazed by both its luxury and beauty; here are some pictures that I found online of the campus.  I figure that this could be something of interest to see for JSU students or faculty members that are willing to visit there. 

The director of international affairs also remembered from our initial meeting how JSU might be willing to discuss offering a place at the international house for one of their students.  He suggested that this could be a great “starter” to initiate a partnership with JSU and that as part of such a student exchange, either for a semester or a year, the student could return to ABAC and give a seminar to talk about their experience and could be a driver for additional students taking classes at JSU.  I did remind the director that I was not in a position to grant such a request, but that it is possibility that might be available if discussions continue to progress.  With that in mind (perhaps this is something that Dr. Ketterer could best address), what is the likelihood (strong, mild, weak) that JSU would be willing to offer a place at the international house for an ABAC student, and if so, what would be the value of such an offer (in terms of dollars – to demonstrate JSU’s commitment), for how long (a semester, a year, or two students for a semester each), and when (spring 2009, fall 2009) could this be possible? 

We finished the meeting agreeing to meet again once we got more detailed information regarding our programs and possible partnerships.  Mrs. Radha told me that she would also approach the other chairs at the undergraduate business school as well as the dean to discuss possible partnerships with JSU.  Mrs. Radha also invited me to speak about JSU and the possibility of exchanges to the incoming freshman class of business students this Sunday, which I agreed to do.  I was quite excited to get this offer because this could be a great opportunity for me to market JSU and its programs to a large group of ABAC students that could be prospective exchange students.  So some final questions, is there any specific information that I should convey to the students of ABAC?  I plan on discussing where JSU is located as well as specifics about the MCIS program – a presentation that have have given to countless high school students to several area high schools in JSU’s proximity.  What should I mention about the JSU business school?  Finally, is there any specific information that you would like to know about ABAC that I can request Mrs. Radha to obtain?

I really would appreciate any help or suggestions that you would have as ABAC does seem quite interested in establishing a relationship with JSU and I would like to get as much as I can done during the rest of my time here in Thailand.