Henning Glaser has his hands full. Right now he is busy following up the high-profile, international conference on “The Protection of Human Rights through the International Criminal Court as a Contribution to Constitutionalization and Nation-Building”, which was recently held in Bangkok. The keynote speaker was Hans-Peter Kaul, Second Vice-President of the ICC – a highlight. Henning Glaser, DAAD lecturer in German law in Thailand, coordinates the German-Southeast Asian Centre of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance, or CPG. It is based at Thammasat University in Bangkok and started up in January 2010. Its primarily purpose is information exchange between Germany and Thailand, focusing on the issue of public law and its role in the development and stabilization of good governance.
Academic cooperation in the field of law between Thammasat University and German universities has a long tradition. There have been strong personal and institutional relations for over 30 years. Thammasat University is one of the top universities in the country. Its Faculty of Law is not only the oldest in the country, it also enjoys an excellent reputation right up to the present day. The university has a large number of Thai graduates from German universities, and many lecturers speak German. For several years there has been a German Law Centre that integrates the academic and advisory activities of professors working in the field of German law. With the CPG, German-Thai cooperation has reached a new dimension. The aim is for the Excellence Centre to develop into a think tank whose influence will radiate through the entire region.
Dr. Carolin Mülverstedt, Head of the Information Centre of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Bangkok, reports a veritable boom in academic relations between Germany and Thailand. “The demand for scholarships, university places and contacts with German universities and research institutions has become so great that we cannot fully satisfy it.” However, this does not apply equally to all subject areas. “We would like a few more candidates for such classic subjects as art and music, but at the moment demand is focusing very much on the more ‘profitable’ curricula,” says the coordinator, who also works as a lecturer at the prestigious Chulalongkorn University. The more technically oriented universities in Aachen or Hanover are very popular. The universities in the former East Germany are also in great demand. “The high standard of education there has been well-known in Asia for a long time,” says Carolin Mülverstedt. However, these days there is an additional argument in their favour: “The lower euro exchange rate and the fact that our tuition fees are quite competitive by global standards make universities in eastern Germany even more attractive for foreign students.”
Germany is known as an exporting nation, and now, by international comparison, it also holds a top position in the field of educational exports. More than 230,000 foreign students are enrolled at German universities, the largest contingent coming from China. Almost 1,000 students and researchers come from Thailand – and many of them are “successful DAAD customers”. Carolin Mülverstedt, who works at the Goethe-Institut in the heart of Bangkok, points to dozens of symposia, seminars and events in Thailand alone. “More than 1,750 alumni have returned since the late 1950s, and many of them hold important positions in Thailand.” In other words, we have come full circle: anyone who studied in Germany is interesting both for German companies in Thailand and for Thai enterprises and institutions.
Now the DAAD is creating a new focus with the CPG, which will be funded to the tune of 1.2 million euros over the next five years. “Not only in Thailand, but also in other countries in the region, the courts are too important for us not to support them wherever we can,” says Henning Glaser. “All the experts agree that the situation in many countries would be more serious without modernized legal systems. Of course, we keep out of government business, but we do help consolidate expert knowledge and strengthen ethical principles, both in the courts and in the institutions that are needed to support any form of democratic government.” At a time when the young democracies of Asia are still struggling to find their future, this is more than a nine-to-five job for the seasoned lawyer and lecturer in public law at Thammasat University.////
