Mario Gonzalez/The Rider Graphic
Monika Garza | The Rider
Study abroad programs and exchange opportunities in Thailand for faculty and students in the UTRGV College of Engineering and Computer Science are in the works.
On Oct. 21, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley signed a memorandum of understanding with Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University, a nonprofit university in northeastern Thailand, at the International Trade & Technology building on the Edinburg campus.
“That general MOU is sort of an umbrella agreement between the universities that, essentially, says we agree to collaborate and work with each other in terms of developing new programs and initiatives,” said Havidán Rodriguez, UTRGV provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
Six representatives from Thailand made the 34-hour journey to UTRGV for the MOU signing. They were introduced by Dennis Hart, associate provost of the UTRGV Office of Global Engagement.
“The primary goal of the memorandum of understanding is to establish and solidify these partnerships so that it will allow us to develop new initiatives,” Rodriguez said. “We want to try to have exchange of faculty, so that we have faculty from RMU visiting UTRGV and faculty from here visiting RMU, and we want to also try to develop study abroad programs in Thailand.”
Alexander Domijan, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, said the agreement will include community outreach.
“We’ll be investigating together the strengths of the different faculty and the research areas that we have in engineering. In particular, we’ll need to develop community outreach efforts and how their engineering technologies can best impact and help both communities.”
The agreement signed by the university and RMU fits the four major goals the College of Engineering and Computer Science set, according to a UTRGV news release. They are to:
–provide multinational learning in an innovative environment;
–conduct research that has global impact,
–develop opportunities for student engagement; and
–create an ecosystem that attracts and develops new industries.
Nantakan Wongkasem, a UTRGV associate professor of electrical engineering and daughter of RMU President Somchai Wongkasem, said she thinks this new partnership will benefit UTRGV in many ways.
“I think it’s a great thing that we could do this in both universities,” Wongkasem said. “Many benefits will come from this, such as research, teaching and students’ exchange.”
Rodriguez told The Rider discussions are being held on when to start offering the study abroad programs.
“That’s going to depend really on the faculty here at our university. I think it’s a matter of having conversations in terms of all these study abroad programs functions and what are the faculty interests to do these study abroad programs,” Rodriguez said. “It’s going to take some time.”
Asked if new academic programs will be created from this partnership, Rodriguez replied: “At this point, no, we are not looking quite yet at full academic programs. One of our goals is to eventually look at those types of initiatives but at this point, we are primarily focusing on faculty exchange and study abroad.”
RMU was founded in 1925 and is located in the town of Maha Sarakham, Thailand.
UTRGV and RMU have similarities between them, Rodriguez said.
“RMU has evolved; they have changed in terms of the name and type of the institution they are. … If you take a look at the evolution of UTPA and UTB to now UTRGV, you see some very similar changes throughout the years,” he said. “Also, RMU has a little bit over 22,000 students and we are a little bit over 27,000 students.”
