EDUCATION Minister General Dapong Ratanasuwan has threatened to use Article 44 of the interim constitution in tackling many ugly problems in the country’s higher-education sector.

Several private and state universities have operated programmes recently without proper permission.

The latest scandal surrounds Bangkok Thonburi University (BTU). Though permitted to run a master’s degree programme in educational management for 500 graduate students each year, the university has recruited 2,500 students to its programmes annually.

“I am now in discussions with the legal team. If normal laws can’t solve such problems, we will opt for the invocation of the special [law] Article 44,” Dapong said yesterday.

Article 44 of the interim constitution gives National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) chief General Prayut Chan-o-cha, also prime minister, the power to issue binding orders deemed necessary for urgent problems without the need to propose a law via the time-consuming legislative process.

Dapong said use of Article 44 would not single out any specific university, because the move would be done to help the higher-education sector.

“It’s just that when the article is invoked, problematic institutes will definitely have to adjust and improve themselves,” he said.

Kamjorn Tatiyakavee, permanent secretary at the Education Ministry, said problems within the higher-education sector had dragged on for a long time. Many universities ran graduate programmes without any real focus on quality.

“In trying to rein in the problems, the Office of the Higher Education Commission has proposed a Higher Education Bill before, but the move has faced stiff opposition from several higher-education institutes,” he said.

Kamjorn said a special law like Article 44 might be able to end these chronic problems.

Ministry deputy permanent-secretary Chaiyos Imsuwan said the council would not grant licences to graduates from BTU’s educational management programme.

“The programme has operated in violation of the rules,” he said.

He said an investigation had found about 10 other universities had also broken the same rules.

Chaiyos said it seemed some universities just wanted to make money and completely ignored educational quality. “We will use tough measures against them, or they will see us as just a paper tiger.”