Student-activist groups gathered together on Feb 12 to protest the privatization of Khon Kaen University. One of the main student organizers, DauDin, also hosted the Esan Common Rights Festival earlier this winter. Your reporter joined with the protesters and spoke with several of the group’s leaders. As the school continues to accept students “outside of the system” for extra tuition and makes public plans to privatize the school, students are increasingly concerned about the double standards and inaccessibility such development would inevitably create. The student groups worked together to develop a letter to the Dean of the university and expressed their opinions in a very public space – the front of “complex” a popular place for students to eat food or go shopping. With banners and loudspeakers, the students got the attention of many students and even some professors joined in with them. ASEAN Youth Movement will continue to follow any developments around privatization at KKU.
