{"id":47971,"date":"2026-07-06T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/?p=47971"},"modified":"2026-07-15T23:49:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:49:52","slug":"nxpo-hosts-social-innovation-index-workshop-for-universities-in-southern-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/en\/47971\/","title":{"rendered":"NXPO hosts Social Innovation Index Workshop for universities in Southern Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NXPO, in collaboration with Thaksin University, organized the Social Innovation Index Workshop & Network: Southern University Cluster on 29 June 2026 at Thaksin University’s Songkhla Campus, with online participation. The workshop provided a platform for higher education institutions to exchange views, offer recommendations, and prepare for the pilot data collection of the Social Innovation Index (SII) of Thai higher education institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nathapong Chitniratna, President of Thaksin University, emphasized that the initiative represents an important step toward developing a tool that reflects the contributions of Thai universities to society. Rather than functioning as a university ranking system or promoting competition among institutions, the Social Innovation Index is intended to help universities better understand their own strengths, enhance institutional performance, and foster collaboration in addressing societal challenges. He also welcomed NXPO’s regional workshop approach, noting that it broadens participation among universities while reducing travel costs for participating institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ms. Supak Virunhakarun, Director of the Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts Division at NXPO, explained that the Social Innovation Index aims to establish an assessment framework that captures the tangible social impacts generated by higher education institutions. The framework is designed to maximize the use of existing institutional data, thereby minimizing additional reporting burdens. It also adopts a participatory approach, enabling universities to help refine the indicators through pilot implementation and stakeholder consultations across all regions to ensure that the framework is well suited to Thailand’s context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Samak Kaewsuksaeng, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Thaksin University, presented an overview of the pilot project and explained that the Social Innovation Index comprises five key institutional dimensions<\/strong>: (1) policies, governance, and regulatory frameworks; (2) financial support and other resources that enable social innovation; (3) the university’s role in teaching, research, and community engagement; (4) the attitudes and readiness of university staff and students; and (5) institutional infrastructure and support systems. Among these, the dimension assessing universities’ contributions to social impact carries the greatest weighting, reflecting the core mission of higher education institutions in advancing regional and community development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Participants also received detailed guidance on the assessment criteria, scoring methodology, and data collection process from Asst. Prof. Dr. Warattaya Chinnakum, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Chiang Mai University. She explained the rationale behind each assessment dimension to establish a common understanding prior to the pilot implementation. In addition, Asst. Prof. Dr. Thawan Chanthachoti, Vice President for Strategy and Quality Assurance at Thaksin University, shared practical recommendations for institutional data preparation. He emphasized the importance of establishing standardized data management systems and supporting documentation, as well as developing reporting approaches that clearly connect institutional policies, implementation mechanisms, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. He also highlighted the need for verifiable evidence to ensure that the assessment accurately reflects institutional performance, maintains credibility, and generates information that can support organizational improvement and future policy development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representatives from universities across southern Thailand exchanged views on the proposed indicators, the feasibility of data collection, and opportunities to strengthen the assessment framework. Participants also discussed ways to build regional networks for collaboration on social innovation, enabling the index to better capture universities’ social contributions and serve as a valuable evidence base for policymaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NXPO will incorporate participants’ recommendations into the refinement of the assessment indicators, evaluation guidelines, and data collection system. These improvements will support the development of a Social Innovation Index that reflects the context of Thai higher education and serves as a strategic tool for informing policy and advancing social innovation nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n

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NXPO, in collaboration with Thaksin University, organiz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NXPO-hosts-Social-Innovation-Index-Workshop-for-universities-in-Southern-Thailand.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/author\/adminsti\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NXPO-hosts-Social-Innovation-Index-Workshop-for-universities-in-Southern-Thailand.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47983,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47971\/revisions\/47983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}