Suchatvee said yesterday that he would go to Government House with Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin and Carnegie Mellon University’s dean of the College of Engineering James Garrett to meet the premier.

They will report on the two universities’ progress in establishing a joint unit located on the KMITL campus that will offer study programmes conferring degrees commensurate with programmes based in the US. The project will also promote joint research projects focused on Thailand and arrange teacher and researcher exchanges to boost skills to international standards, Suchatvee said.

“The cooperation between KMITL and Carnegie Mellon University is an historic step for Thai higher education. It’s the first time that a Thai university has received the honour from a world-leading university to set up a joint cooperation unit and offer joint study programmes,” Suchatvee said.

He said the collaboration would help Thai academics, students and private-sector personnel to hone their skills to reach international standards, pushing Thailand to become Southeast Asia’s hub for research and innovation while boosting the confidence of investors to locate their manufacturing and other businesses in Thailand.

The university staff also planned to show support for the government’s plan to allow foreigners to set up universities in special economic zones that will teach courses in fields not currently taught in Thailand, such as high technology, Suchatvee said.

He added that they believed that the plan would stimulate competition and educational quality in the country.

KMITL could be a model for educational institutions nationwide to cooperate and jointly develop study programmes with world-class universities, he said.

On Wednesday evening, KMITL will also host a dinner talk titled “A Leap Forward in Bridging Higher Education, Research and Innovation for Thailand 4.0” at The Westin Grand Sukhumvit and present the KMITL-Carnegie Mellon cooperation plan, he said.

The event will be attended by the education minister, the digital economy and society minister, the industry minister and executives from major private companies such as PTT, SCG, TRUE and Thaibev.