ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the social function of higher education and how knowledge is constructed and transmitted in Thailand. It describes Thai higher education within a cultural perspective, using the multiple research methods to assess how both indigenous Thai culture and Western external influences have shaped the modern form of Thai higher education. Prior to 1973, Thai higher education's primary role was to facilitate modernization by providing a workforce for Thailand's traditional bureaucracy and emerging modern industrial sector. The chapter examines whether Thai higher education has included or excluded "the other" (other peoples and minorities' voices) and what effect it has had on social mobility and related socioeconomic equity and equality. Traditionally, Thai higher education has provided social mobility to bright and ambitious Thai children from rural areas. The Thai government has allocated scholarships for talented students from the rural areas and remote regions to study in elite public institutions.
