TSCC - Thai Swedish Chamber of Commerce
Roy Andersson, Jenny Bäckstrand and Head of Department Ingrid Wadskog visiting SAPA’s Executive Committee in Ho Chi Minh City, with the purpose to discuss thesis work and internships. Professor Roy Andersson, in charge of ‘Campus Southeast Asia’, gives the background and insights about this education and their expansion plans and outlook for Thailand and the region. Logistics & Management – industrial economy Roy is assistant professor at School of Engineering and did his Phd at Chalmers in Gothenburg and his area of research is within how to run companies, manage ups and downs and be resilient over time, and to study what factors make them survive. “And those companies who are resilient are those who have been around for a long time on the market.” He mentions a string of the familiar Swedish companies with global sales and operations. In Thailand he also teaches a course at AIT, as guest professor. The BA in Logistics & Management provides a profound knowledge of how industrial activity is built up, is led and can be developed. It combines business and technical understanding with an insight into human conditions, needs and limitations. Study is mainly focused on the industrial system, says the
description. Logistics manufacturing systems, operations management as well as quality and work sciences are central subject areas. In addition, knowledge of organization, business, change, project work and leadership is gained. “This engineering course is very broad,” says Roy. “It’s industrial economy and in that you have the soft part: company management, organizational etc. and the hardware: statistics and analysing data in order to lead and control.” “You have logistics everywhere; at hotels, storage, groceries management etc. So we have had internship in a variety of places – one has even been on a resort, and another at a bar business.” Gateway to Southeast-Asian growth market The campus in Southeast Asia is also telling for that this education fulfils a need among businesses. “We have requests from the industry – our customers are the society at large but especially Swedish industry. And we asked ourselves: what are their demands? Answer: that the students become more internationalized, in line
with what most companies are today.” “Then follows the question which area to focus on. And the destination must be attractive for students. So we thought of Thailand as being attractive for Swedes to travel to; it has a positive connotation. We assumed we would then get a strong interest among students wanting to go abroad, and also among teachers who can partake in education exchange.” Also, it’s about Southeast Asia as a huge market that the Swedish companies have known about for a long time; they know one must be established here. And most other universities, by comparison, are running after China, Roy points out. “And this area is more interesting, since the Southeast-Asia market is growing. This also gives a gateway; Swedish engineer students who have been here become more attractive on the job market back home after that, and they have been given a door-opener to this market.” “We communicate this opportunity in Sweden when we market our education to prospect students, making them aware that they can be in our focus region Southeast Asia, but also
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