The Thai American Business Study Program

The Thai American Business Study Program was initiated in March 2008 with sponsorship by the Royal Embassy of Thailand. The Smith program is Thailand’s first partnership with an American business school, which will support collaboration with Thai universities and the business community in Thailand to expand opportunities for education and development involving the Thai and American business communities.

The goals of the program are:

To provide knowledge and create better understanding of Thailand and its issues in business, politics, economics, society, culture, arts and history
To strengthen and develop friendship networks at people-to-people levels among the young generations of the two countries
To encourage exchange of viewpoints and dialogue between Thai and American students who will pursue careers in business and policy-making
To serve as a forum for visiting business and professional people from Thailand and the U.S. to help educate current students and faculty, and develop mutually supportive networks for future opportunities

The Thai government initiated a plan in 2005 to forge educational collaborations between Thai and American universities to increase the number of Thai researchers and encourage knowledge-sharing. Currently, the Foreign Ministry of Thailand sponsors five similar programs at U.S. universities — Cornell University, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan, University of Oregon and the University of Wisconsin-Madison — though no other is solely focused on business.

The program creates a student and faculty exchange program between Maryland and top Thai universities, and is behind the founding of the Thai American Club, sponsored by the Smith School and open to all University of Maryland graduate and undergraduate students. Club activities and program-sponsored study trips to Thailand for undergraduate and graduate students will expose Smith and Maryland students to Thai culture, experiences and business.