Overview
Thai universities with high potential in each discipline were encouraged to develop doctoral degree programs in response to the lack of faculty members with the capacity for advanced research. The Doctor of Philosophy Program in Information Studies of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, was initially offered in 2003. The program was constructed under the Co-operative Research Network (CRN) Project of the National Commission of Higher Education, which aimed to develop faculty members, graduate studies programs, and research developments in Thai universities. The Information and Communication Management Program (previously the Department of Library and Information Science) at Khon Kaen University was nominated to be a core institution to develop a doctoral degree program in the library and information science field. The Doctor of Philosophy Program in Information Studies was developed and approved by the Khon Kaen University Council on September 8, 2003. The first batch of doctoral students was enrolled in the second semester of the academic year of 2003.
The program was entitled “Information Studies” because it was aimed at being an interdisciplinary program in concept. The program was designed to train human resources in the information profession who had high competencies in the integration of their knowledge backgrounds with management, analysis, problem-solving, and research by using the principles and theories in information and knowledge studies. Faculty members of the program are from several departments of Khon Kaen University, including Information Science, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Statistics, Social Sciences, and Languages. External university faculty members and experts from organizations such as the Asian Institute of Technology, Suranaree University of Technology, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Mahasarakham University, and the National Electronics and Computer Technology (NECTEC) are also invited to be involved in the course teaching, research supervision, research evaluation, and examination. International collaborations with the universities such as the University of Canberra, and Edith Cowan University (Australia); University of Tsukuba (Japan), Simmons College, and Indiana University (USA); Nanyang Technology University (Singapore), and National Taiwan Normal University (Taiwan) have also been conducted in various ways for many years.
Regarding research strengths, the faculty members of the Ph.D. program in Information Studies have been involved with the initiative research group projects at national and international levels. For example, 1) The Cooperative Agreement on the Development of a Network on Doctoral Programs in Information Studies, five universities in Thailand are the founding members, and Khon Kaen University is the core institution for research development. 2) The founding member of the Consortium of i-Schools in Asia-Pacific (CISAP). 3) The founding member of Taiwan–Singapore–Thailand (TST) Library and Information Research, whose name has currently changed to the Asia Library and Information Research Group (ALIRG).