During this festive season of the year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our stakeholders and report to you about what we have done in the passing year. 2023 has been a busy and productive year at CMMU, and it consolidates a remarkable acceleration toward excellence underway. This holiday season is a time for us to reflect. I certainly hope that you, as our stakeholders, can look back over the passing year, celebrate many accomplishments, and feel a sense of pride and satisfaction with us.

Education & International Accreditation
This passing year, we have initiated many education programs co-developed with other faculties within Mahidol University (MU) to benefit the students and the Thai society as a whole. As the problems we encounter in the world today are highly complicated, skills and knowledge in one functional domain are simply not sufficient to deal with them. We capture on our strength and the strengths of other MU faculties to develop programs that allow students to broaden their perspective and to equip them with multidisciplinary skills and knowledge they need to survive and thrive in today’s rapidly changing market.

To ensure the top quality of education we offer, we have explored possibilities toward more international accreditations to raise our global profile. CMMU's Dean, as the only business school dean from Thailand, was invited to join the AACSB Asia Pacific Advisory Council (APAC) meeting in Osaka, Japan. The purpose of the Asia Pacific Advisory Council, a team of 12 members, is to "advise the AACSB board of directors and staff on key issues and challenges, assist in setting priorities related to business education and AACSB's mission, and enhance AACSB’s activities and engagement in the Asia Pacific context."

Research
In line with Mahidol University’s research strategy, we have achieved a total number of 41 Scopus publications in 2023, most of which contributes to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The publication quality has significantly improved as 63% of them are published in Q1 journals as determined by the global Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR). To reinforce Mahidol University’s global strategy, CMMU has also had an impressive Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 8.4, making it the top business school in Thailand in terms of the Impact. Internationally, our FWCI is competitive as compared to some of the world’s top business schools in Asia. Our PhD programs have proven to be a driving mechanism for this achievement.

Like at any other world-class institutions, it is our belief that a top-class education and research excellence go hand in hand. The quality research that we have produced means our faculty members are up to date and their knowledge are cutting-edge. Their research outputs are not only used as classroom materials at CMMU, but also contribute to the scholarly communities globally as demonstrated by the FWCI.

Academic Services
Executive Education takes pride in delivering unparalleled service through our executive training programs and consulting services. Our flagship program, Strategy and Innovation for Businesses in Asia (SIBA), marks its 10th anniversary, highlighting our enduring commitment to excellence in collaboration with the MIT, Sloan School of Management. This collaboration offers participants unique access to both Thai and world-renowned experts aiming to enhance Thai business leader’s ability to excel in the Asian market that is becoming increasingly competitive and innovative. Additionally, our close collaboration in both public and private organizations to offer meticulously designed courses, empowering human resources professionals with the knowledge and skills essential for excelling in their roles and contributing to organizational sustainability.

Sustainability
CMMU has long been Thailand’s pioneering business school in terms of sustainability studies, having published its first Scopus report on corporate sustainability in 2011. For the first time in the entire Mahidol University’s history, CMMU has initiated the development of a CMMU Sustainability Report to demonstrate our genuine commitment to a broad range of stakeholders including our competitors and future generations. Although this report is not required, unlike that of listed companies, it is our discretion to launch it to feature our sustainability initiatives throughout the passing year and also to help us to keep track of what we do and how we can improve our sustainability initiatives. We hope this report will be a model for other higher-education institutions to follow so that we all can help to improve the prospect of global sustainable development.

Learning facilities
It has always been our goal to provide first-rate learning facilities to suit the needs of our learners, whether they are students, life-long learning alumni or our executive education clients. After the renovation of the 6th floor, we have just finished another renovation of the 3rd floor. Well-equipped with technology, this innovative learning facility is designed to suit the lifestyle of the new generations of learners. The facility comprises two modern classrooms, a number of small group meeting rooms and group sofas for relaxation, a large circular meeting room, three studios for in-house social media development, a modern pantry and toilets including those for learners with special needs. The new facility is also designed in such a way that it can be re-arranged as a large auditorium to accommodate a large number of visitors. We will open this new facility for use in January 2024 just to welcome the Dragon year. So, please make sure you visit the facility.

May your holiday season be merry. We wish you a great 2024!

Best wishes,

Associate Professor
Vichita Ractham, PhD.
Dean, College of Management
Mahidol University