Dr Supot Hannongbua, who teaches at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Science, said that within the country’s higher education system, learners should be able to become innovators in the 4.0 era.

“But apparently, most students are stuck in the outdated version. Just 20 per cent of students can seek more knowledge from online media, which is in the 2.0 version only,” he said.

But he said, the 2.0 version was still an improvement on the 1.0 period when lecturers had to “spoon-feed” students with knowledge.

Supot said students generally remembered just 5 per cent of spoon-fed knowledge. If they read more, they obtain about 10 per cent of knowledge during the course of their study. If lecturers used illustrations, students might be able to remember up to 20 per cent of the content. If demonstrations were involved, students would attain about 30 per cent of the knowledge given, he said. Citing renowned educationalist Prof Dr Vicharn Panich, Supot said such a method amounted to rote learning and an “outside-in” approach.

Supot believed Thailand’s educational sector would be able to move to the 3.0 version by arranging debates/discussions, practice and “teach others” sessions.

“Debates and discussions can help students remember 50 per cent of the content, practise 70 per cent and ‘teach others’ 90 per cent,” he said.

He said if Thailand wanted to implement the 4.0 version, it would have to integrate education into communities and ensure students could help solve community problems. “In the 4.0 era, we expect students to learn beyond classrooms. We expect them to be innovators,” Supot said.

He said if students had learned how to develop solutions to problems they had seen in their daily lives, they would develop abilities to produce innovations for the business sector too. With Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha placing a strong emphasis on Thailand 4.0 goal, the University Presidents Council of Thailand (UPCT) has vowed to turn all its 27 member universities into the Thailand 4.0 higher-educational institutions.

For such a transformation, these universities would have to encourage analytical thinking and innovative minds among their students. They would be expected to create useful research and innovations.

In terms of research, Supot said there had so far been no clear definition of the Thailand 4.0 idea. “But, in my opinion, research by Thai univer-sities must have now be at the stage of Thailand 1.2 only,” he said.

According to Supot, the Thailand 1.0 research is mere research, while the Thailand 2.0 research is what makes it to academic journals. Thailand 3.0 research should be leading to patent registration, and Thailand 4.0 research should provide innovation.

“But the Thailand 4.0 research does not necessarily mean something that will raise Thailand’s competitiveness on the international stage only,” Supot said. He said research that could practically encourage locals to efficiently utilise local resources should count too.

So far, Supot believed the country’s higher-educational institutes had ended up at no more than the 1.2 version, even if Thailand 4.0 was their goal.

“At this point, fewer than 10 per cent of Thai higher-educational institutions are research universities,” he said.

Supot said the Office of Higher Education Commission has endorsed just nine institutions as research universities. However, these universities still focus on having their academic papers published in international journals, which were the goal of the Thailand 2.0 only in terms of the country’s research capabilities.

“Anyway, some universities have now been trying to seek patents and push for the utilisation of their research findings too. If they successfully reach that point, they will reach the Thailand 3.0 and Thailand 4.0 stages,” Supot said.

For the higher-education sector to move from Thailand 1.2 to Thailand 4.0, Supot recommended that organisations embrace the guidance of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

“Follow his guidance about understanding, reaching out to, and developing our targets. Also, don’t encourage students to compete against their friends. Rather, talented students should be encouraged to help teach their peers,” Supot said.