Job Discussion Forums

roguegrafix · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 125

Hi All,

Don't know if this has been mentioned but Thailand is changing it's semester dates this year in order to be in line with other ASEAN countries. So be aware that the current semester ends around about the beginning of March. The next semester will start around about the middle of August or even September.

I believe most of the universities will change (certainly true with my uni) and possibly quite a few high schools will as well. Although, this being Thailand, how would you know for sure. There may be two systems operating this year.

The new semesters will run (as far as I can make out -- so it's plus/minus 2-weeks) Mid August-Mid December and Mid-February--Mid-May

So if your looking for work -- especially at universities -- good times will be July-August and December-January.

EFL Educator · Joined: 17 Jul 2013 Posts: 988 Location: Cape Town

Hello there,

Interesting information...although I have always found work in the LOS any time of the year...mainly due to the high turnover of EFL instructors in most government and private schools. (including language institutes). Surprised

MimTuto · Joined: 27 Jan 2014 Posts: 1

"Thailand is currently going through a period of change with regard to academic term dates. However, this is not a change that will take place overnight. It started last year and, by most accounts, nobody expects it to be fully completed until about 2017 or 2018.

What this means is that some schools are using the new system, some schools are using the old system and some school (most of them) are in the process of transitioning in-between. The result of this is that most people have just adopted a 'wait and see' attitude. For example, I have a Thai friend, who's son is 8 years old, when his son would be breaking up for the summer holidays. He told me that it would be 'about mid March' and then he'd be back at school 'sometime in June'. Just a year ago, the answer would have been 'breaking up at the end of February' and 'going back sometime towards the end of May'. I'm sure that next year it will be different, too." This is a quote from an employee with a TEFL course provider out in LOS.