Dear members of the AIT community,
With the end of my term as the President of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) today, 30 June 2013, I am writing to you as I join the most recent graduates of AIT in also embarking on the next leg of our journey as proud members of the AIT family.
As in any family, we have not always agreed. But a family we remain.
Eight years ago, I was honored after a transparent and international executive search and interview process to accept an offer by the Board of Trustees of AIT to become the 8th President of AIT. At that time, like today, AIT had a proud heritage but as I would find, the institution also had tremendous financial and other challenges that needed to be addressed. With the changes that swept our region as well as the world of higher learning these past two decades, especially since the end of the Cold War, some of those challenges were envisioned. Others, like the great flood of 2011, could never have been imagined. Following an exhaustive internal and external process, the current financial situation was expected, and we had forecasted early in 2009 that AIT would start facing financial problems by the middle of
2013 if we continued business as usual. We had received clear signals from many of our key and traditional donors that the charity model of the past was coming to an end. Therefore our efforts were geared towards developing alternate innovative funding models in the context of the changing and competitive landscape of higher learning aimed at putting AIT on a stronger and more sustainable financial footing.
While challenges remain, my message today is not about that or the discord and disagreements that sadly split so much of our community this past two years. Others may choose to dwell there. I do not.
Instead, I seek with this farewell message to celebrate AIT and all that has been achieved, to share good will and express words of thanks, and more importantly to look to the future.
The achievements, like the challenges, were many. Together, with the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee that approved all major strategies and provided guidance, and a management team responsible for driving implementation, we sought from 2006 onward to move AIT forward, after stabilizing it financially. Change is never easy and never without controversy, but the Board and management then did not shirk from that responsibility. Instead, we came together, making difficult decisions, and more than that, in the most difficult time, we united -- Board, management, faculty, staff, students and alumni -- once again as a community to recover and rebuild, first from near bankruptcy, and then after flood waters inundated our campus. But never did we lose the AIT spirit and its academic mission. Whatever was done was always with the goal of ensuring an even more international, more respected, more sustainable and more independent AIT.
One of our proudest accomplishments was the first graduation ceremony after the floods. The accomplishment though is that of the students who despite the floodwaters and discord, succeeded in graduating without any significant loss of time. My congratulations also go to the over 6,000 men and women, who graduated during my years in office.
The good will, and words of thanks, that came my way through the years, and particularly after the floods were many. I want to extend my thanks to the many competent faculty, staff and students whose time on campus overlapped with my time at AIT and who I had the honor to work with and learn from, these past years. I would like to thank in particular H.E.
Mr. Anand Panyarachun under whose chairmanship I was appointed as President and H.E. Dr. Tej Bunnag who continued the legacy of H.E. Mr.
Anand. I value their guidance, mentorship and support.
This year, AIT turns 54 years old. No one can predict how the future will unfold, but my hope remains that as the world of higher learning and that of Thailand and the region continue to change, that AIT not just change with it, but that the institution will also anticipate that change before it occurs. Our graduates, past, present and future, deserve no less.
I truly believe that history is the best judge of everything and my leadership at AIT will also be evaluated and determined accordingly in future. I joined AIT when AIT was near bankruptcy. Through dedication and hard work, we turned this around in a very short period of time.
The global higher learning landscape had changed significantly since the 1990s and we tried to make sure that AIT started to adapt to this.
We developed good strategic plans with full guidance from the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee. These strategic plans were significantly supported by the international community and strong support from Japan, Norway, Sweden, etc. We achieved international intergovernmental status for AIT, which it rightly deserved. We were in process to put in place a funding model that would ensure long-term financial and academic sustainability for AIT, when things got derailed. Every strategic plan and decisions are well documented and I am sure they will be valuable for future administrations to steer AIT towards a good future. In spite of all the challenges, I am proud by the fact that AIT today is in a better financial position than when I joined as President in mid-2005. It is heartening that we were able to achieve this in spite of the great flood disaster that we faced, the significant budget cuts and freeze from donors, and the recent governance crisis. Particular pride should be taken in the fact that before these recent crises, we were able to build up AIT's reserves from around 7 million Baht deficit to around 550 million Baht surplus.
However, without any core funding, we had to dig into our reserves to make much needed strategic investments into our academic and laboratory facilities and some new initiatives, in the recent past.
I had offered to go on a month-long voluntary leave of absence to allow the Board appointed Fact Finding Committee (FFC) to work independently and hoped to rejoin the Institute for my remaining few months. However, from its initial 1 month mandate in February 2013 the FFC requested for another 60-day extension until 20 June 2013, at which date they were expected to submit their final report. They were unable to meet the extended deadline and the mandate of the FFC was further extended by another 10-days coinciding with my end of tenure as President which is quite unfortunate since I will not be able to officially bid farewell to members of the AIT community and the Institute's other stakeholders and partners. My request and sentiment shared by several trustees was for the Board to appoint an independent and international FFC towards ensuring that it is a fair, open and transparent process. With a non-international FFC which even includes an AIT alumnus who is party to the conflict, the impartiality of the deliberations of the FFC is yet to be seen and their report will sadly be released after I have left the Institute. It is also unfortunate that I was never invited by the FFC to meet and discuss the issues.
The long term survival of AIT lies in its internationality, independence, democratic processes, faculty-staff-student quality, creativity and innovation; which all require a sustainable funding model.
University presidents come and go. Indeed leaders, whether in business, government or academia, come and go. But what remains is the vital importance of AIT's mission to contribute to the development of human resources of Asia and beyond.
Now though is the time for new energy, new ideas and new leaders for a stronger AIT.
And to them and to you, my very best wishes.
Sincerely,
Professor Said Irandoust
President
Asian Institute of Technology
What a hogwash...
ReplyDelete