Abstract:
This study was conducted with the objective of analyzing the desirable characteristics of students at university level in order to examine the current situations, problems of collaboration between the academic and student affairs for student development of Thai higher education institutions. In order to propose a collaborative model between the academic and student affairs for student development in Thai higher education institutions, and proposed the policy recommendations for implication. Research Methodology, the data was collected from the interviewing of 9 experts in student development, and 13 executives of the academic and student affairs. Collected data of the program/activity that collaborated between academic and student affairs of 93 from 135 executives in academic and student affairs of Thai higher education institutions under the Office of the Higher Education Commission (68.69 percent), and connoisseurship by 18 experts in higher education. The instrumentation were a content analysis form, an interviewing form and a collaborative program/activity survey. The data was analyzed by content analysis and the statistics used were mean, standard deviation and frequency. The research findings can be summarized as follows: 1. The four desired characteristics of students were the GOAL: Global and Thai citizenships, Occupational, life, and leadership skills; Awareness of self, and social responsibility; and Learning and thinking capacities. 2. The current situations, problems of collaboration between the academic and student affairs for student development of Thai higher education institutions are the collaborative issues on policy, management, and curriculum and instruction including activities. 3. The collaborative model between academic and student affairs for student development in Thai institutes at higher education or The ACSA Model is composed of: 3.1 The four desired characteristics of students or the GOAL are as follows: Global and Thai citizenships, Occupational, life, and leadership skills; Awareness of self, and social responsibility; and Learning and thinking capacities. 3.2 The collaborative mechanism is composed of the following four dimensions as follows: 1) Arrangement, 2) Constructional Planning, 3) Strategic Implement, and 4) Assessment and Evaluation. 3.3 The three student development guidelines are 1) development by subject, 2) development by self-development and 3) development by service learning. 4. Policy recommendations are as follows: 1) set policy; 2) assign persons to take responsibility and 3) provide support.