Industry chair professor programme: a case of industry-academic cooperation in the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University

As the number of the national universities in Thailand is increasing, the government tends to decrease the support for each university year by year. The Faculty of Engineering. Chulalongkorn University, consequently, has to increase investment in education along with research and development to satisfy the growing demand from domestic industries to maintain its academic excellence. The measures call for various forms of co-operation between the Faculty and industries. The Chair Professor Programme is one such measure, which involves funding support from private organisations to establish a professorial chair in various departments. At present there are professorial chairs from both domestic and overseas companies. Teaching staff and students work together for research and academic purposes. This paper will explain the process to achieve this kind of co-operation, current activities, linkage with other activities, results gained, and future plans to expand further support both domestic and overseas organisations.