News from the Faculty Committee Meeting on September 14, 2011

From the Dean

1. The Commencement Day for 2012 has been set on July 5. Students wishing to attend should make sure to defend and submit the final version of their theses around early April according to the date set by Faculty of Graduate Studies.

2. For MU staff whose contacts will expire soon and who have used #1 welfare option, they will be asked to reconsider their welfare options. MU will encourage staff to change their option to #2 (5% deduction and use social security service). The #1 option is 10% deduction and health benefit is equivalent to civil servants.

PC remark: I am not sure how many of us are under #1 option (Only KY?)

News about STT37 (October 10-12)

1. MUSC will sponsor free registration for faculty members. Staff should use a special code to receive this waiver.

PC remark: Most of us have been registered by SJ because we are committee, reviewers, session chairs. Thank SJ very much for your help. For WN, VC, JM, WK, we have notified the finance department about your payment. Please keep your receipts and contact K’ Yuvadee after October 12. 

 2. They would like to know how many students from each department have registered to be staff at STT

PC remark: K. Yuvadee, please make sure we notify them of those students’ names who have volunteered to help at the event.

From Deputy Dean for Administration and Finance

MU has sent a new chart for calculating raises for civil servants right after the raises have been made. To remain within available budget, the finance department will adjust the increase percentage to fit the funds available. Therefore, people may receive a non-round figure raise, i.e., 1.95% instead of 2.0%.

From Deputy Dean for Quality Assurance

สมศ. Will visit MUSC around beginning of October

From Deputy Dean for Education Affairs

 The final exams will take place around September 27 – October 4. All coordinators must submit grades within 15 days after the exam.

From Deputy Dean for Research and Graduate studies

1. The Vice President for Research has called a meeting of research administrators. Details are summarized in PDF and PPT files.

PC remark: The PPT file will be distributed to individuals and the PDF file has been sent to your email address. Please read it carefully.

2. MU staff can only use the computers at the MU research division to submit their NIH grants. The firewall only allows those computers to upload files on NIH page. Please see more details in the PDF file I sent.

3. There are many types of research grants available at CHE

PC remark: Could ST brief us about grants that we can apply for.

4. The government has granted permission for setting up a new Center of Excellence for Medical Biotechnology. This is a cooperation project between 4 Thai universities. MUSC is the main hub.

5. A. Kanyarat notified that at the last meeting (Sep 12 or 13??), Faculty of Graduate Studies decided that all programs should submit TQF documents to them before Oct 14 in order to be able to call for first round application.

PC remark: This is a very serious matter. We need to be able to open for first-round applications. Otherwise, we will lose most of our prospective students. SJ and TS will update us about the TQF submission process.