Enhancing University Competitiveness through ICT based Knowledge Management System

Public universities are widely regarded not only as teaching establishments but also as organizations that create new knowledge and support social communities. Under great competition in higher education level, numbers of universities have implemented strategies and tools that improve quality of students and research results and provide several community services for building their competitiveness. ICT based knowledge management is usually recommended as one of important roles to improve efficiency and effectiveness in university mandates and provide many benefits to university. Kasetsart University (KU), one of Thailand's largest and most progressive public universities, has applied KM in its strategies in order to overcome resource scarcity and enhance its competitive advantages. It has developed several KM practices and projects using ICT in several activities which relate to mandates. The initial findings indicate that (1) ICT based KM system significantly enhances the university's competitiveness in term of quality and quantity of student, research results and innovative community services. (2) The specific KM practices and projects support different aspects of university mandates. This ICT based KM system has been implemented and proved to be practical. This system is suitable for the university full of educational mission, innovative research, latest body of knowledge, academic services offered to society and community as well as the Thai culture preservation, a standard mission for Thai higher education institution. This model could be the best practice for further improvement and be customized to fit other universities in other developing countries.