1. Accreditation Review Result
ABEST21 International Accreditation Result of the Master of Business Administration Program, Faculty of Business, Economics and Communications, Naresuan University, Thailand is as follows:
“ABEST21 International certifies that the School’s educational and research activities generally satisfy accreditation standards. The School’s Kaizen plans are good and quality maintenance and prospects for the improvement of education and research are promising and good.
Accreditation commences April 1, 2025 for a five-year period.”
2. Comprehensive Review
The program benefits from harmonious working relationships among stakeholders. However, it is also necessary to review the workload for all levels involved in the implementation of this program. A fair workload (in the sense that it is in accordance with its functions, duties, and responsibilities) will be a positive thing for everyone. Furthermore, to maintain the existing togetherness and family, a conducive atmosphere is needed to maintain this which can be achieved through information disclosure, clear rewards and punishments, productive dialogues, and solid teamwork.
- Please refer to every section of the Standards.
- Here are some important points and feedback on those issues:
- The MBA Program Committee: the structure, the process of recruitment, the reporting process, the job descriptions of the member, needs to be revisited to make it clearer.
- English Proficiency of Students and Supporting Staff: A recurring theme in the improvement issues is the limited English proficiency of students and supporting staff, which has been highlighted as a challenge in globalizing the school’s operations and communication.
Feedback: The school’s initiative to offer English training is a positive step, but greater investment in language development is needed to ensure that staff can effectively support international collaborations and communicate with global partners. More structured language programs, with clear KPIs for proficiency improvements, could accelerate this progress. Additionally, creating incentives for staff to reach proficiency goals might also increase engagement in language training. - Increasing Stakeholder Involvement: The school acknowledges that while some feedback from stakeholders (students, alumni, employers) is gathered, more systematic and formalized involvement is needed. They aim to increase the participation of stakeholders in the review and development processes.
Feedback: A more structured approach to stakeholder engagement is crucial. Establishing formal channels for gathering feedback—such as annual stakeholder surveys, regular focus group discussions, and an online platform for continuous feedback—could help the school address this issue. Involving stakeholders in curriculum development and quality assurance processes more regularly would ensure that the school continues to meet market and educational needs. - Academic Staff Development and Promotion: Another issue is the need for academic staff to achieve higher academic titles such as full professor, associate or assistant professor. This is important for maintaining academic standards and supporting the school’s reputation.
Feedback: Encouraging academic staff to pursue professorial titles is essential for enhancing the institution’s credibility. The school could offer targeted support, such as mentorship programs for early-career academics, workshops on research publication, and clear timelines for career progression. Creating a supportive research environment with funding opportunities could also motivate faculty members to achieve these titles more efficiently. - Formal Stakeholder Feedback Systems: The school pointed out that the disclosure of internal evaluation results to outsiders (such as students or stakeholders) occurs only on request, rather than being systematically shared.
Feedback: Transparency in sharing evaluation results with all stakeholders is crucial for building trust and accountability. The school could develop a formal process for regularly publishing evaluation results, such as an annual report or dashboard on the school’s website. This would not only enhance transparency but also allow stakeholders to see how their feedback has led to concrete improvements. - Societal Impact and Ethical Concerns: The school recognizes the importance of incorporating societal impact into its strategy and educational model. It plans to foster more discussions on societal impact, particularly through classroom and extracurricular activities focused on ethical issues.
Feedback: This is an important and forward-thinking initiative. The school could build on this by integrating sustainability and social impact more deeply into its core curriculum and
encouraging students to take part in real-world projects that address societal challenges.
Partnerships with NGOs, social enterprises, and local communities could provide valuable hands-on experience for students.
Several areas could benefit from further enhancement:
- Improved Transparency: The school could more regularly communicate evaluation outcomes and decision-making processes to stakeholders (students, alumni, and industry partners).
- Stronger Integration of Technology: Utilizing digital platforms for project management and administrative communication could streamline processes and ensure transparency in decision-making, especially for urgent matters.
- Faster Implementation of Action Plans: While there is a system for implementing action plans, speeding up the process and ensuring consistent follow-up on evaluation outcomes would improve overall efficiency.
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
3. Compatibility with the ABEST21 Standards
Chapter 1: Internal Quality Assurance and Management
- Standard 1: Academic Unit Management
- Standard 2: Governance System
- Standard 3: Self-Check/Self-Evaluation
- Standard 4: Staff-Development
Since ABEST21 quality standards refer to Kaizen (continuous improvement) and the implementation of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, the internal quality assurance and management implemented at MBA FBEC Naresuan still has several things that must be clarified and emphasized. This includes:
- Clear division of duties and authority between the center (university), school (FBEC), and MBA committee. Organizational governance in the MBA Program of FBEC NU tends to use a matrix organization, where each person has more than one responsibility and authority. For this, it must be clarified what, who and when the PDCA cycle agenda will be carried out at MBA FBEC NU.
- MBA FBEC NU shows a harmonious and family working atmosphere among all stakeholders. This must be maintained by MBA FBEC NU by realizing information disclosure from all managerial levels.
- MBA FEBEC NU to further increase empowerment to frontline human resources to be able to solve problems more quickly and accurately.
- Overall, quite compatible to the ABEST21 standards though there are certain areas that can be affirmed. Since this is a reaccreditation process, certain aspects must be fulfilled or achieved in the short term, for example employing full professors for the MBA program or at the school level.
Governance of the MBA program to be enhanced. - The school has established coordination between committees that handle administrative matters and the faculty. There are regular interactions between faculty meetings and administrative units, ensuring alignment on key decisions, such as curriculum adjustments, strategic planning, and quality assurance.
Issues to be improved:
- The school has established coordination between committees that handle administrative matters and the faculty. There are regular interactions between faculty meetings and administrative units, ensuring alignment on key decisions, such as curriculum adjustments, strategic planning, and quality assurance.
- Establish a system that share information in more real-time.
- It is time for MBA FBEC NU to increase its target to be able to develop into a business school that is considered locally, nationally and regionally in Asia.
- Speeding up the internationalization programs and actions.
- Program committee – scope of work, duration of appointment and composition of members to be reviewed.
- Improved Transparency: The school could more regularly communicate evaluation outcomes and decision-making processes to stakeholders (students, alumni, and industry partners).
- Stronger Integration of Technology: Utilizing digital platforms for project management and administrative communication could streamline processes and ensure transparency in decision-making, especially for urgent matters.
- Faster Implementation of Action Plans: While there is a system for implementing action plans, speeding up the process and ensuring consistent follow-up on evaluation outcomes would improve overall efficiency.
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
Chapter 2: Mission Statement
- Standard 5: Mission Statement
- Standard 6: Financial Strategies
The mission statements are already clearly stated by the school; however, how the school achieves this mission should be clearly measured. For example, how do you measure that you produce entrepreneur, manager, and leader that drive regional and national community development in Thailand.
- Commendable statement.
Outcome and impact measurement of the MBA program learning outcomes. - The school has clearly defined its Mission Statement, which states the ideal human resources to be nurtured as well as ideal expertise, skills, and competencies. The new mission statement is:
“To create entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders through globally recognized academic works, research, innovation with an emphasis on driving regional and national community development in Thailand.”
Issues to be improved:
Initiating the formation of an alumni organization that can be used as a partner to improve the quality of the learning process, curriculum quality, marketing, and others. This alumni organization can be actively involved in the PDCA process in the FBEC NU MBA program.
- To have database on quality of MBA alumni i.e. career progression, becoming entrepreneurs etc.
- To strengthen the mission statement further:
- Specificity and Measurable Goals: Consider adding specific values and measurable outcomes to the mission statement to provide a clearer framework for success.
- Enhanced Linkage to Institutional Goals: Explicitly outline how the school contributes to the university’s broader objectives, ensuring that the mission is tightly integrated with institutional strategies.
- Focus on Character and Global Competence: Provide more details on the programs and initiatives that foster character development and global competencies.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Create forums for discussing the mission statement and regularly update it based on stakeholder feedback and evolving needs in the educational landscape.
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
Chapter 3: Curriculum
- Standard 7: Learning Goals
- Standard 8: Curriculum Policy and Management of Curriculum
- Standard 9: Quality Improvement of Curriculum
- Standard 10: Online Education
- Standard 11: Diploma Policy and Learning Outcomes
- Standard 12: Globalization of Curriculum
The MBA FBEC NU has 2 different sub-programs (Plan A and Plan B) in terms of inputs, processes and outputs. However, the curriculum of the two sub-programs is not too different. For this, the MBA FBEC NU needs to review to distinguish these two sub-programs in terms of input, process, and output.
- Commendable.
Entrepreneurship agenda. There should be at least one compulsory subject related to entrepreneurship as core subject in the MBA program. - The school needs to set its learning goals by defining the expertise, skills and competencies to be developed through the educational programs.
The school has defined the learning goals in accordance with those stated in Thailand Qualification Framework (TQF) supervised by Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC).
The curriculum also reviewed regularly and has just been updated.
Issues to be improved:
Curriculum Review to meet the mission and vision of the school.
- Curriculum review.
- Regarding the Globalization of Curriculum, to support the mission “globally recognized”, the curriculum must also incorporate areas of globalization, for example, set up courses with English language.
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
Chapter 4: Students
- Standard 13: Admission Policy and Student Selection
- Standard 14: Student Encouragement and Support
- Standard 15: Student Body Diversity
- MBA FBEC NU must increase the number of students who register so that they can make a better selection. For this, the program can be offered to a wider target market, for example to MSMEs and start-ups, students outside the region, and foreign students.
- Alumni must be more often involved in improving the quality of teaching in the MBA FBEC NU program.
- Alumni.
English proficiency. - The students who came for the interview session, only few can speak English quite well.
The number of enrolled students is decreasing, the school needs to do extra effort to increase the student’s intake but at the same time maintain the quality.
Issues to be improved:
- Increase the number of student’s intake.
- Program that may improve the students’ English proficiency during their study time.
- Update the alumni database and establish the MBA Alumni Club.
- Involving the alumni in improving the program.
- Alumni database to be updated.
- MBA Alumni Club good to be established.
- Admission criteria may include requirement for minimum level of English competency.
- The number of student’s intake.
The qualifications of the students for MBA Program, probably can add the matriculation program and English language program.
Development of MBA Alumni association.
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers. Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers. The university had offered several English training sessions for graduate students. The program has promoted those mentioned activities to MBA students and encouraged
them to join the activities.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
Chapter 5: Faculty
- Standard 16: Faculty Structure
- Standard 17: Faculty Qualifications
- Standard 18: Maintenance of Education and Research Environment
- Standard 19: Faculty Development
- Standard 20: Faculty Diversity
The diversity of faculty member is not ideal, in the sense that there are no full professors in the MBA FBEC NU program.
- Recruitment of Professors.
Database on Research & Publication of Faculty. - In general, the total number the faculty members are adequate compare to the number of students (the faculty-student ratio).
The qualifications of faculty members also adequate.
Issues to be improved:
- Either you make or buy professors, do it quickly.
- Research involving students should be improved.
- To hire professors on full time or contract or visiting asap.
- Research management center database.
- The number of the full-time professors
The process of selecting the faculty members to teach in MBA Program
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
Chapter 6: Educational Infrastructure
- Standard 21: Maintenance of Educational Infrastructure
- Standard 22: Globalization of Educational Infrastructure
Commendable.
- Commendable
- The school has excellent educational infrastructure.
Issues to be improved:
Prepare for foreign students’ facilities: prayer room, cafeteria with proper meals, accommodation, etc.
- NA
- Additional of proper praying room (especially for Muslim students).
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
4. Good Practice in the School’s Educational Programs
Title: “A harmonious and familial business school”
Reason: The main strength of MBA FBEC NU is a harmonious and family working atmosphere.
5. Matters to be improved
The presence of dual languages (Thai and English) for all documents is recommended.
- Please refer the comments above. Documents submitted should be in English. Since ABEST21 is an international body of accreditation, it is good to ensure all documents to be submitted in English language.
- In the report, there are still lot of mixed up between reporting the MBA Program with the whole Faculty of BEC.
- There are also still unmatched in some of data reported.
- Most of the supporting documents are still in Thai Language and can’t be understood.
The School’s Feedback:
Agreed as recommended by the Reviewers. However, not all document can be translated to English to outsiders. Only some synopsis of each document can be, and were attached thereof.
PRT Response:
Thank you.
6. Peer Review Schedule
ABEST21 assessed the School’s ABEST21 Management Accreditation by conducting substantial assessment on “Self-Check/Self-Evaluation Report (SCR)” by the Desk Review and the online Peer Review Visit according to the Review Schedule below.
- Jun.30, 2023 : Acceptance of the “QIS”
- Sep.01, 2023 : Online Interview
- Nov.28-29, 2023 : Ratification of the “QIS” by the Peer Review Committee
- Jun.30, 2024 : Acceptance of the “SCR”
- Sep.12 and 13, 2024 : Peer Review Visit
- Oct.25, 2024 : Informal Announcement of the Draft of the PRT Review Report
- Oct.25-Nov.4, 2024 : Coordination of opinions between the PRT and the School
- Nov.27-28, 2024 : Ratification of the “PRT Review Report”
- Jan.14, 2025 : Recommendation of the Accreditation Committee
- Feb.26, 2025 : Ratification of the ABEST21 Accreditation by the Board of Trustees