Abstract:
Purposes of study : The Purposes of this study were : 1. To study the present status of Chulalongkorn University. 2. To study the perceptions of experts toward goals of Chulalongkorn University. 3. To compare perceptions of faculty members who did not have administrative positions and faculty members with administrative positions toward goals of Chulalongkorn University. 4. To compare perceptions between university teachers and outside persons toward goals of Chulalongkorn University. 5. To propose goals of Chulalongkorn University. Methodology : As part of the research that went into the designing of questionnaire, the researcher thoroughly studied the present status, problems and trends of development of Chulalongkorn University from various research and related literature. Upon an extensive study, the researcher interviewed experts who had knowledge about Chulalongkorn University and higher education in Thailand in order to procure their perceptions concerning the present status, problems and trends of development of Chulalongkorn University. After the preliminary study by interviewing experts and reviewing literature, the author had constructed a questionnaire that best suited the purpose of this study. In order to gather qualitative data, such as opinions and perceptions of goals of Chulalongkorn University, 10 experts in the field of university management, higher education, and general management were interviewed. For the information required in statistical testing, two groups of population were selected. The first was the faculty of Chulalongkorn University during the second semester of academic year 1986, 14 percent of the total population (2,401) or 331 persons were selected as the sample size for this study. From a total of 331 distributed questionnaires, 282 or 85.20 percent were returned. The second group of population was distinguished persons working in various organizations outside Chulalongkorn University. Their names were listed in Who s who Directory Thailand Executives 1985 and were alumni of Chulalongkorn University. Of the total population, 230 persons, or 55 percent, were selected as the sample size of the study and followingly, 200 or 85.96 percent of the sent questionnaires were returned. The questionnaire used as the main instrument of this study was conctructed by the researcher with two different parts. The first part of the questionnaire was the demographic data which was analyzed as independent variables such as age, sex, academic rank, etc. The second part of the questionnaire was a sery of statements pertaining to goals of Chulalongkorn University to which the respondents were asked to indicate their levels of agreement or disagreement. In this part, the Likerts Five-Point-Scale was used. Data Analysis : Data obtained from interviewing and literature was used for the content analysis. Percentage, means, standard-deviation, ranking and t-test were used for the treatment of data from the returned questionnaires. Summary of Findings: The summary of findings was concluded into two parts, findings from interviewing and documents, and findings concluded from questionnaires were as follow : 1. The present status and problems of Chulalongkorn University were affected by the socio-economic and political vicissetude of the nation. 2. The performance of Chulalongkorn University depended so much on the quality of inputs as entering students, faculty, funds, building and facilities. However, in order to manage a university effectively internal system had to be congruent with this expected goals. As viewed by the external experts invited in this research project, the present status of financial, personnel, and academic administration was hampered by the internal politics. The financial as well as human resources were not effectively utilized up to the potential of the university. The analyses of questionnaire results were as follow : 1. The faculty members and the outsiders saw the university's goals concentrated in the areas of graduate education, producing graduates who were practical and "good with hands", producing research work relevant to the society, providing knowledge and new ideas, serving the targeted groups of less fortune such as farmers, concentrating in the fields of sciences and technologies, and maintaining the university status of the leading institution of the country. 2. In comparing opinions of faculty members and outsiders; results with significant differences were presented as follow : 2.1 Faculty members, as compared to the outsiders, saw concentration of university goals in the area of graduate education, producing graduates good with their "head" producing basic research, providing nearly all kinds of community services, serving the targeted groups of farmers and laborers, concerning on teaching research work and maintaining national culture, pay rather higher importance to more fields of study, stressing public relation, providing greater flexibility for personnel in achieving their personnel job satisfaction, and providing better clerical and supporting services for faculty members. 2.2 The outsiders, who were also alummi of the university, paid greater attention in undergraduate education, providing night classes or extension courses to working population, stressing the targeted group of business circles, providing opportunities for outsiders to be represented in the university governing board, employing professional executives to run the university, leaving recruiting and selection of department heads and deans to the high-leveled executives instead of using the balloting or democratic process of the present, providing performance evaluations of personnel and organization, providing opportunities for the public to be informed of both failure and success of the university, letting the governing board to perform decisively like the corporate board, providing the personnel management flexible enough to eliminate ineffective faculty members, and finally, to restructure the remunerative system flexible and rewarding to job performance. 3. As viewed by faculty members who did not have administrative positions and faculty members with administrative positions, toward goals of Chulalongkorn University, there were no significant differences regarding the goals of Chulalongkorn University.