We are proud to host Prof. Dr. Sumalee Sungsri and delegates from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University who are on their 1-day visit to OUM Perak on 29 June 2010.
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) was officially established by Royal Charter on 5 September 1978 as Thailand’s eleventh state university. His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Rama IX, graciously bestowed the university its name in honor of King Prajadhipok, King Rama VII, who, prior to his accession to the throne held the title “Prince Sukhothai Thammaracha”. STOU was the first university in Southeast Asia to use the distance learning system. Todate, more than 350,000 students have enrolled at STOU.
Prof. Dr. Sumalee Sungri and heads of department of STOU are here to get a better picture of how a regional center of OUM operates. Dr. Sumalee's research interest is in the area of students retention. Thus our discussion centered mostly on students attrition and how best we could help reduce it. The meeting which began at 9.00am ended at 11.00am. The delegates were then shown around the premise of Greenhill Learning Center.
The delegates were then taken to OUM Perak (Jln Lim Bo Seng) which is located about 10 minutes away from Greenhill Learning Center. They were impressed with our set up and the way we managed retention.
We then took a quick visit at the State Museum. The delegates were then treated to a lunch at the Koh Samui Restaurant. We had a mixture of local and Thai food. By 1pm they have to depart to KL to catch their 8pm flight.
We are extremely proud and honored to be given this opportunity to host them. The discussion we had will be very useful for both OUM and STOU to further enhance and improve our systems so that we can find ways to reduce retention. Basically it was a learning experience trip for them and for us too.
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The night before, the delegates were treated to a dinner at the Pondok Panas Restaurant. We had good nasi padang there. Also present was Prof. Ramli Bahroom, OUM's Financial Controller.