Thai professors visit to increase understanding of climate change

A group of faculty members from Thailand's Kasetsart University will complete a visit to Utah State University on Wednesday after learning more about agriculture and the environment.

As a state university of Thailand, Kasetsart was the first in the country to offer postsecondary degrees in agriculture. Its name translates to mean College of Agriculture Science. The college shares many of the same focuses as Utah's public land-grant university, USU, which began as the Agricultural College of Utah.

Although the two schools are located on continents half a world apart and have two very different climate conditions, professors have joined together to better understand how climate change is affecting the world. Their work is expected to become a long-term partnership between the two.

The Thai professors are "interested in learning about the agriculture and natural-resources environment in Utah because it is so different from what they experience back home," said USU College of Agriculture faculty member Roger Kjelgren.

He is hosting the visitors as they tour laboratories on campus at USU and discuss the fledgling partnership.

An alternative purpose of the Thai professors' trip is to discuss a collaborative degree program in which students could reciprocally attend both universities for one or two years and receive a degree from each institution or a joint degree.

"The visiting faculty are internationalizing their curriculum to attract better students and to better prepare those students for international employment — just what we are trying to do, as well," Kjelgren said.

Kasetsart is Thailand's largest agricultural and natural-resources university, according to the country's Ministry of University Affairs Web site. The Bangkok-based institution boasts a student body of more than 45,000 across seven campuses.

While in Utah, the professors — who teach courses in horticulture, animal science, soil science and plant pathology at Kasetsart — had the opportunity to speak and interact with USU professors in the College of Agriculture, College of Science and College of Natural Resources.

The group also took a tour of Capitol Reef National Park and the San Rafael Swell in southern Utah.

E-MAIL: wleonard@desnews.com