| This research is designed to examine perceptions of 19 presidents in the areas of teaching, research, public service and Thai cultural preservation in Thai private institutions of higher education. The current condition, the problems, the influences, and the trends of Thai private institutions of higher education are highlighted.;Data were collected from in-depth interviews with the university presidents and documents related to private institutions. Spradley's domain analysis was used to analyze themes of the study. The results were in the form of descriptive analysis.;The results reveal that various activities are organized to support these four Ministry's mandates. The most important academic activity is to introduce modern technology to facilitate teaching-learning. To fulfill the research function, applied research is focused for immediate action. The field of research is mostly in social sciences. For public service, private institutions provided training courses, seminars, employee training, and distribution of their academic printed materials. The activity supporting Thai cultural preservation is to preserve and to resuscitate traditional celebrations. The problems of their activities on the four functions are the lack of staff and budgets, time, and ineffective policies. Government policy, economics, social pressures, globalization, competition, limited resources, incentives, and institutional leadership all impact upon the quality of private institutions.;In the future, the presidents will fulfill their four functions more quantitatively and qualitatively. They will hire more staff or faculty members and allocate budgets properly. Cooperation among private institutions will be needed in order to exchange their ideas and create the quality of the institution in response to the national policy. |
