Silpakorn University in Bangkok comprises of 13 faculties spread across four campuses. It was founded in 1943 following the suggestion of the Italian-Thai artist Corrado Feroci, it is the country's leading educational institution in the field of fine arts. The national university now also includes faculties of Economics, Engineering, Industrial Technology as well as Information and Communication Technology.
Prof Claus Schreier, PhD of the IBR initiated contact with Silpakorn University in 2012. Since the Dean, Prof Phitak, PhD [zd1] [BAH2] and Vice Dean, Prof Nappanon, PhD visited Lucerne in early June and Prof Erik Nagel, PhD and Prof Claus Schreier, PhD made a reciprocal visit to Thailand in July, a promising collaboration in the area of continuing and executive education has emerged with the Thai university.
Without doubt, an early highpoint was the visit by 51 PhD students from Thailand to the IBR in Lucerne. The programme consisted of a rich mix of tuition and visits to selected companies. The focal points of the tuition included "Intercultural Perspectives on Differences in Thai and Swiss Management", "Economic Perspectives on Switzerland" and "Sustainable Leadership Management".
The afternoon visits the premises of different companies offered the students from Bangkok the chance to experience the element of water in a variety of guises: Hugo Lötscher, Managing Director of vonRollhydro, Philipp Hochuli, Head of Quality Management at SGV (the Lake Lucerne Navigation Company) and David Schurtenberger, Managing Director of the start-up, Luzerner Bier, presented their business models.
Following this initial
successful encounter, the two universities signed a joint Memorandum of
Understanding on 28 October 2014 in respect of a collaboration concerning
double-degree programmes and the continuing education offered by the IBR.
Commencing January 2015, Prof Claus Schreier, PhD will be spending a sabbatical
period teaching at the Universities of Silpakorn and Mahidol in Bangkok.
