Due to the pandemic of COVID-19 situation, the government has announced the emergency decree, together with Khon Kaen province has announced the temporarily closed the institute for 28 days (official date counting), starts from March 18- April 30, 2020. Regarding the mentioned above, it could affect the original academic calendar of Khon Kaen University. Hence, Khon Kaen University must modify the academic calendar, including an undergraduate degree and graduate degree for the academic year 2019-2020 as follows:
The Modification of Academic Calendar 2019-2020: Undergraduate Degree
The Special Semester of Academic Year 2019
| No | Description | Academic Calendar 2019 | |
| Original | New | ||
| 1 | Special semester of academic year 2019 | 27 Apr 2020 – 10 Jun 2020 | 7 May 2020 – 16 Jun 2020 |
| 2 | The end of the summer semester of academic year 2019 | 11 Jun 2020 | 17 Jun 2020 |
The First Semester of Academic Year 2020
| No | Description | Academic Calendar 2020 | |
| Original | New | ||
| 1 | First semester of academic year 2020 | 29 Jun 2020 – 7 Nov 2020 | 27 Jul 2020 – 8 Dec 2020 |
| 2 | The end of the first semester of academic year 2020 | 8 Nov 2020 | 9 Dec 2020 |
The Second Semester of Academic Year 2020
| No | Description | Academic Calendar 2020 | |
| Original | New | ||
| 1 | Second semester of academic year 2020 | 23 Nov 2020 – 28 Mar 2021 | 21 Dec 2020 – 2 May 2021 |
| 2 | The end of the second semester of academic year 2020 | 29 Mar 2021 | 3 May 2021 |
The Modification of Academic Calendar 2019: Graduate Degree
| No | Description | Academic Calendar 2019 | |
| Original | New | ||
| 1 | Deadline for Independent Study (IS) examination and thesis defense | 27 Apr 2020 | 11 Jun 2020 |
| 2 | Deadline for submission of complete Independent Study (IS ) report and thesis (hardbound thesis) to Graduate School | 13 May 2020 | 26 Jun 2020 |
Assoc. Prof. Maitree Inprasitha, Vice President for Education, Khon Kaen University mentioned to the modification of KKU’s academic calendar that the practice , following government is affected to the KKU’s deferral academic calendar of the year 2019-2020. However, this modification can decrease the spread of COVID-19 and support to our social responsible cooperation. Besides, this could allowed the lectures to reform the new instructional platform such as online teaching, physical distancing, including other practical instructions that compensate for internship at faculties.
In addition, there are some benefits to this deferral academic calendar. First, KKU has some time to prepare for student’s residences such as Service Apartment for the student who studies at an actual classroom or temporal advisor visit. Second, KKU can be able to prepare Infrastructure to manage completely online instruction, including lecturers’ and students’ online training. Finally, KKU could provide the time for the parents and students, studying in the first semester of 2020 to prepare for the new academic platform.
As the reasons above, Khon Kaen University must modify the academic calendar for both the summer semester (2019) and the academic year of 2020 (the first and the second semester). Moreover, KKU provides the instructional guidelines, following in each semester’s calendar as follows:
- Special Semester of Academic Year 2019: All learning classes and assessments are required to implement via the online platforms. Any laboratory and practical classes that are inapplicable for online processing will be considered by the Head of Department for further solutions under the physical distancing condition.
- Academic Year 2020: The theoretical courses and assessments are recommended to implement via the online platforms
- Academic Year 2020: The course with both theoretical and practical work are recommended to define with appropriate proportion under the consideration of Head of Department, for example, setting up the theoretical classes in the first semester and later the practical classes in the second semester under the physical distancing condition.
- Academic Year 2020: The cooperative education and all types of internship courses will be considered by the Head of Department with safety awareness and complying with curriculum implementation standards.
Besides, Assoc. Prof. Maitree Inprasitha, Vice President for Education, Khon Kaen University also said that the instructional measures are the guideline for the faculties to properly adopt and consider using in their course. However, if some faculty has different instructional context and would like to set some different practices, they can suggest this to the education department then we will proceed with further action.
[ Thai ]
