Sawarot Teachaviwat & Yada Sornsakrin, Thammasat Business School (Thailand)

About Thailand

We’re from Thammasat University, which is located in the central of Bangkok, near the grand palace. For Chulalongkorn University, there are many shopping areas and it is located in the central area called Siam.  Unlike Chulalongkorn University, our university is located near the Chao Phraya River – the river in the middle of the city, and near many tourist attractions, such as museums. Previous exchange students that went to our university went to many tourist attractions from our school.

In Thailand, there are a lot of places that you can travel. There are four regions – north, middle, east and south. As Bangkok is the capital city, it is the business area. Many students visit Bangkok to shop during their holidays as Thailand have many holidays. You can also go to the south or the east beaches, or the mountains in the north. We have 77 provinces and the tourist attractions are in at least 20 provinces. Hence, you explore these places, especially the nature. The prices here are also very cheap.

Near our school area, you must visit the grand palace which is 10 minutes walk away. If you have never been to the palace, it is as if you have not been to Thailand before. The school is also located near Chinatown and Khao San Road. This road is also about 10 minutes walk away, and it is like a walking street market. In the afternoon it is a shopping area, but when it is at night, it changes to clubs and bar area.

In my opinion, the food here are rather similar in Thailand, so there is not much of a change in appetite. In our school, there is a canteen that sells good food. You can just approach anyone In our school to ask!

In Bangkok, we can take the BTS and the underground train. However, these are not connected to our university. You can will need to make a transfer by bus or taxi. The transportation cost is about 13 baht (SGD 0.52) as for students who stay about two bus stops away from school. However, there are many students staying in the dorms, and hence, they will walk to school. Some students may stay across the river and take the boat to school.

About School

In our school BBA, there are three majors – Finance, accounting and marketing. The well-known one is finance and majority of the students studies finance.

We have a lot of academic activities like case competitions for students to take part. For non-academic activities, they are usually big in scale such as the university activities. Just recently, there is the competition between Chulalongkorn University and our university. As both university are regarded as the top 2 universities, we usually compete together every year. We also have many sports association, and many campuses like the international study (where exchangers study).  Each association have their own sports competition, so every year, we will also hold a sports competition in each campus.

In each class, there are not more than 30 students, but I feel that it is quite similar to the system here. There are many guest speakers and group projects. Guest speakers, like senior managers of a company, are invited over by our professors. The career consulting centre also arranges for guest speakers to talk about career development and self-development.

In our school, there is a uniform system., which also applies to exchange students as well. Other faculty need not wear uniform, but our faculty requires us to wear the uniform and take attendance. We are required to look more formal as it will show respect to the professor and also to prepare yourself for the future. On a daily basis, you need not wear the official set of uniform, but will need to wear a standard colour scheme similar to our uniform – white top and black bottoms (guys are pants while girls are skirt). Special cases such as exams, all students from all faculty are required to wear uniform in order to enter the exam hall.

Our school timetables follow a fixed structure. School starts at 9am and ends at 4 pm normally. Each class are 3 hours long. However, if there are any make-up lessons, it can be held anytime depending on the teacher’s arrangement.  Similar to NUS, Thammasat University also have an email specially for students.