MERBOK: Thai student Chalermphon Srikaensai, 21, had always wanted to travel to other countries as he believes it could broaden his mind.
So when he was offered a one-month internship with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Kedah, he was beyond excited.
“Malaysia is a beautiful country which I had always wanted to visit. As Malaysia is our southern neighbour, it is important that we get to know each other better,” said
Chalermphon who studies Education at the Thepsatri Rajabhat University (TRU), Bangkok.
He recently participated in an educational exchange programme between the two universities.
Chalermphon was placed in an English course at UiTM and was able to learn a lot from interacting with the students and lecturers.
“UiTM provided us with many facilities and made our stay very welcome.
“Our interaction with local students also helped us to get a better understanding of the local culture which was very meaningful to us,” he said.
Chalermphon wasn't the only Thai student who was at UiTM Kedah.
Three of his fellow students from TRU also joined the exchange programme at UiTM Kedah to do their internship here.
The others were Chutimon Srithong, Peth Laola and Tuksima Wongkiaw, all aged 22.
Tuksima Wongkiaw is also studying Education at TRU.
Since she has been to Malaysia for a vacation, she didn’t want to miss the chance for an internship here.
“I decided Malaysia was a beautiful country during my short visit to Penang.
“But being here for a month for this internship has allowed me to absorb more (knowledge) of Malaysia, and now I have fallen in love with the culture, food, history and the nice people,” she said.
Besides being exposed to life on campus of a local university, the Thai students were also taken on trips to learn about life outside the campus in Kedah.
Peth Laola who is studying Computer Education found the trips to be an eye-opener.
“I am so glad that I and my friends were not stuck in campus for the duration of the internship.
“They also took us on trips and this allowed us to mingle with the people and see all the beautiful nature in Kedah such as the Gunung Jerai. To me learning through travel has a bigger impact,” he said.
UiTM Kedah’s Rector Associate Professor Dr Shaiful Annuar Khalid said the Thai students were taken on trips to explore all that Kedah has to offer such as historical sites, tourism sites, the towns and cities in the state.
“We want to broaden their minds as much as possible during their stay, so we took them to visit important and historical places in Kedah,” he said.
He said the programme was part of an ongoing continuous exchange of students between the UiTM and TRU.
“UiTM has had several programmes with Thai universities in 2019 especially TRU. Because of the regular exchange of programmes, we are able to build trust and that helps a lot when we entrusted our students with them and vice versa,” he said, adding that UiTM Kedah was working hard at building connections with other universities abroad.
“We have close relationships with various universities all over the world. We believe that our students can benefit a lot when we organise exchange programmes.
“Our students here can learn from the visiting students and when they travel to other universities, they can learn from over there too.
“This brings a lot of benefits to the students through their travel. So we will continue to foster strong relationships with other universities,” he said, wishing all the visiting students the best in their future endeavours.
Currently, UiTM has ongoing collaborations with universities in India, Brunei, Bulgaria, Turkey, Switzerland and Indonesia and has plans to expand its network further.