Education

Suratthani Rajabhat University (SRU) help develop students to become ‘Social Engineers’ in order to lead in developing and supporting the local communities and the country. SRU is a local university that establishes a new concept, ‘Social Engineer’, for students to lead sustainable community development using the community resources for the maximum benefits. The concept of ‘Social Engineer’ encourages students to think systematically and analytically. Students should be able to connect with local community. There are four main characteristics of the concept of ‘Social Engineer’:

1. Students must have analytical thinking skills. They should be able to identify cause and effect and perceive problems as challenges which will help them grow.
2. Students should be able to apply knowledge they learn in university to benefit and solve the problems of local community.
3. Students should be able to collaboratively work with others without conflicts in order to develop local community.
4. Students must have skills in creating innovation to solve problems of local community.

The club has been operated continuously by students from SRU since 2009. Originally, the club was registered as a voluntary and community services. Example of activities and projects are camp activities in various schools and library projects including repairing the existing libraries and building new libraries for underprivileged schools every year. The objectives of the club are to organize various environmental activities and make good contribution to the environment. Until 2015, the club received funding and participated in the youth activities within the university (Green Youth). With the support from Department of Environmental Quality Promotion (DEQP), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the club established a Waste Bank Project.

The first year, 2017, the Waste Bank Project (under the theme title which can be translated into English as ‘if you have any garbage in your hand, please give them to us’) opened to exchange recyclable waste from students and university staffs. The activity was held every Wednesday at 1 p.m. on the ground floor of Faculty of Science and Technology Building. The money receiving from the sale of recyclable garbage could be exchanged for notebooks and school supplies. As a result of such activity, the club received a bronze award at the national level for the year of 2017 for implementation of environmental youth activities within the university (Green Youth).

In 2018, the second year of the Waste Bank Project, the theme was ‘the world is beautiful by our hands’. The Project still operated the exchange of recyclable waste from students and staffs in the university. The activity was still held on the same date, time and location as the first year. In addition, other activities were organized to educate and inform knowledge of waste/garbage types and to voluntary collect garbage at the natural tourist attractions at Ban Klong Yan, Khiriratnikhom District.

The third year of the Waste Bank Project, 2019, it operated under the theme ‘exchanging the waste for the younger ones’ and opened for exchanging recyclable waste on the same date, time and location. The money from the sale of waste could be redeemed to buy school supplies to donate to students at schools near the university. From such activities, the club received a silver award at the national level for the year of 2019 from implementation of environmental youth activity within the university (Green Youth).

On the fourth year of the Waste Bank Project (2020), it organized under the theme ‘cloth bag station and pump station’. The activity was opened to exchange recyclable waste from students and staffs in the university and held at the Student Development Division area (located at the temporary building of Faculty of Education). The club arranged various types of waste sorting activities such as how to categorise household waste properly, a campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastics by encouraging the use of cloth bags instead of plastic bags. Moreover, the pump station was set up for filling mechanical liquids such as dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent, fabric softener etc. The students and university staffs can bring an empty packaging bottles to fill with new liquids. In addition, the club established three smokeless incinerators at Wat Mokkha Thammaram in order to burn general waste which cannot be disposed. As a result, the club received a gold award for the implementation of environmental youth activities on campus (Green Youth) at the national level for the year of 2020.

In 2021, the fifth year of Waste Bank Project (the first year of making merit with garbage), it was opened to exchange the recyclable waste from students and university staffs on the 2^nd floor of the Students Development Division building for only two months until the COVID-19 outbreak situation was severe. The university announced the regulation to switch from normal classroom teaching to online teaching. As a result, the club produced VDO clips of waste sorting for the club members to sort their own household waste. After that, they would send the categorized waste to various projects such as the separation of plastic bottles to help doctors, cycle projects and Green Road Projects including donating nine baht from selling recycle waste to buy computer equipment for underprivileged schools. This year, 2021, the club received a silver award for implementation of environmental youth activities within the university (Green Youth) at the national level (in the process of internal evaluating).

n the year of 2022, the sixth year of the Waste Bank Project (the second year of making merit with garbage), the club organized a contest of producing innovative waste VDO clips to compete for the prizes. The club also arranged a waste management project and established four smokeless incinerators at Watt Mokkha Thammaram and Wat Soi Sip in order to reduce the black smoke problem from burning waste in the community. These projects are in the process of presentation for evaluation for the year of 2022.

Recently, in 2023, the club changes the name to ‘Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Club’. The club organized SRU Zero Waste Project as the waste bank project center including a recycled waste activity to win lucky draw with Trash Lucky. This project is a waste management model to support community for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG Station).

At present, the Environmental Conservation Club continues to strive to raise an awareness, being a leader and a role model in contributing to the environment within the university and sharing it with the society outside the university.

Many projects and activities are organized continuously in order to support the sustainability use of this learning area. There are also academic service activities led by students and supported by Khun Thale Subdistrict Municipality, Suratthani Municipality and Bueng Khun Thale Local Fisherman Club. In order to establish a learning center, a red lotus pond and a fish pond were built. The reason behind building the red lotus pond was to preserve, reflect and remind of Bueng Khun Thale (Khun Thale swamp) in the past since there were many red lotuses in this area. However, the red lotuses disappeared from the area because the area was used and developed to be a water storage area. Various plants such as Rang Chuet (Thunbergia Laurifolia Linn), ginger, galangal and Yellow Star, etc. were grew in the area for students to learn and for villagers to find food. In addition, the students and members of Bueng Khun Thale Local Fisherman Club collaborated to upgrade the area to be a tourist attraction. There are check-in spot and a sightseeing bridge. The tourists can take pictures and enjoy the lifestyle of fisherman at Bueng Khun Thale.

There are activities organized to educate participants about the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy starting by cultivating mushroom in Khun Thale area. The activities were collaboration between students and villagers creating process of exchanging knowledge related to the mushroom cultivation and the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.

A group of student leaders, researchers and villagers have distributed information about Bueng Khun Thale context including history, ways of living, natural environment, resources and surrounding area. The aforementioned distribution was in the form of Roll Ups because they are easily to move and place in different locations.

This project enhanced the potential of the area by using community resources including knowledge providing and sharing between students, villagers and researchers. The tourism potential was analyzed in order to plan to raise the number of tourists in Bueng Khun Thale. Community products from the resources of Bueng Khun Tale were upgraded such as shrimp paste from fresh water shrimp and sun-dried fish.

Innovation projects and activities carried out in the Khun Thale Subdistrict, Muang, Surat Thani Province have created the collaboration between students, villagers, researchers, government and private sectors. This leads to potential upgrade of the area using local resources to drive the activities and projects.

The project in this area was organized for students majoring in Public Administration under the course of ethic for administrators to enhance the citizenship for coexistence in a multicultural society, Phum Riang Subdistrict, Chaiya District, Surat Thani Province. They visited the area of Wat Phum Riang School and informed about citizenship in a democratic society and the empowerment of citizenship for living in a multicultural society through the forms of lecturing and performing with Nang Talung (shadow play). The target group was the youth in Phum Rian Subdistrict.

Students majoring in Social Innovation for Sustainable Development has learned with the community and implemented a tourism promotion project on cultural community in three peninsular areas in Phum Riang Subdistrict, Chaiya District, Surat Thani Province. There were field trips to educate people about cultural community-based tourism. Data survey of tourists collecting from local villagers was done in Hua Len Community, Phum Riang Subdistrict, Chaiya District, Surat Thani Province. The information was used to develop strategies and media to promote cultural community tourism.

Implementation of activities and academic service projects in target areas, namely Chaiya District, Khun Thale Subdistrict, Muang, Surat Thani Province revealed empirical results that corresponded to the needs of the areas. The collaboration and mutual learning among students, people, academics, researcher, government, private sectors and civil society helped develop the area in such a sustainable way.

Bueng Khun Thale Wetland Ecological Learning Center located in Khun Thale Subdistrict, Muang District, Surat Thani Province. This is the area with diverse ecological systems. Students of Suratthani Rajabhat University and local government organization received a support by National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) to develop the area to be a field study area for the Animal Ecology course. Students with community leaders collaborated to conserve and study the environment and ecology for animals.

For the past 7 years, students have participated in various activities that help villagers, youth, local community and related organizations understand the existence of marginal plants and animals living in the area. This can be considered as one of environmental conservation measures for the future generations.