On June 1, 2022, 10 third-year students of the ASEAN Studies Program at the School of Political Science and Public Administration departed Nakhon Si Thammarat to further their study in Indonesia. The institution where students will conduct their education is the Indonesian Language Program for Foreign Speakers (Bahasa Indonesia Bagi Penutur Asing : BIPA) at the State University of Malang in Malang, East Java. This group is the seventeenth generation of students the ASEAN Studies Program has continually and yearly sent to Indonesia to study.

This study-abroad program is compulsory as part of the curriculum’s outlined study plan. Students are expected to study additional advanced languages in their preferred-language home country after they have completed the ASEAN Studies Program’s language classes and are prepared to study abroad. Students will study Indonesian studies subjects in addition to language courses and get experience attending classes with Indonesians and international students of various nationalities while studying in Indonesia.

Professor Dr. Surasit Vajirakachorn, the Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration, Ajarn Naruemon Klatookwan, the Vice Dean, and Ajarn Pensri Panich, the staff member in charge of the school’s collaboration with Indonesian educational institutions, accompanied the students on this particular trip. In addition to sending students and meeting with the State University of Malang staffs who will supervise the students, the school’s executives will visit a number of educational institutions in Indonesia to discuss academic collaboration.