10.6.2 Access to university track underrepresented groups applications

In 2025, Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) continued to measure and track applications and admissions of underrepresented groups, with a focus on disabled students and low-income students. Instead of mixing these applicants with the general applicant pool, the university runs separate application channels for them. Applicants with disabilities apply through a dedicated admission project with its own programme codes, and students from low-income families apply for financial support through the Student Loan Fund system, where every application is recorded, screened and followed up. Because each group applies through its own channel, the university knows how many underrepresented applicants apply, how many are admitted or selected, and which faculties and programmes they enter, so that support can be planned for every student before and after admission.

A dedicated admission channel for applicants with disabilities

SWU admits disabled students through the Disabled Persons Project under Round 1 (Portfolio) of the national TCAS admission system. On 4 November 2025, the university announced the project for the 2026 academic year, with applications open from 11 November to 11 December 2025 through admission.swu.ac.th. The project has two separate admission codes: the Disabled Persons Project (programme group code 054) and the Disabled Persons Project (Special Programme) (programme group code 230). The announcement sets out the number of places in each faculty and programme, and the types of disability that each programme can accept, such as low vision, mild hearing loss and physical or mobility impairment. A version of the details is also provided in text form for applicants with visual impairments.

Using separate codes is what allows the university to measure and track this group. Every application made under codes 054 and 230 comes from an applicant with a disability, so the Undergraduate Admissions Unit can count the number of applicants, the number admitted and the programmes they choose in each year. Applicants may choose only one programme, which also makes each record clear. Information about the project is shared through the SWU DSS page of the Disability Support Services Center, so that the same unit that will support these students on campus is involved from the moment they apply.

Figure 1: SWU announcement of the Disabled Persons Project under TCAS Round 1 (Portfolio) for the 2026 academic year, with applications open from 11 November to 11 December 2025

Source: https://www.facebook.com/swudss/posts/pfbid0CBvBDJwbVMBenRX8d2cG15SKxVCpjCo3g3nmNVM5hmJSQ46MPgNAa7d2tCPahgRDl

Tracking applications from low-income students through the Student Loan Fund

For low-income students, SWU tracks applications for financial support through the Student Loan Fund (SLF). For the 2025 academic year, the university issued an announcement on the schedule and guidelines for SLF loans and published step-by-step instructions for new applicants, including first-time borrowers, students who borrowed at secondary school or at another university, and students who changed programme. Applicants register their request and upload supporting documents in the SLF's Supreme system between 20 June and 20 July 2025. The university then checks each application against the fund's eligibility criteria, which include family income, announces the list of selected borrowers, and follows up with each selected student through the DSL system to sign the loan contract.

This process gives SWU a full record of how many students from low-income families apply for support, how many are selected and in which faculties they study. The same record is used every year, so the university can follow changes in demand and make sure that financial need does not prevent students from enrolling and continuing their studies.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/100064583776123/posts/1186081100221338/

Outreach to young people with disabilities before they apply

SWU also reaches out to future applicants with disabilities. On 26 November 2025, the university hosted the event "Bangkok Youth with Disabilities: Study Well, Find Work" on the ground floor of the Innovation Building, Prof. Dr. Saroj Buasri, together with the Social Innovation Foundation and Pencil Box Co., Ltd. The event offered guidance on further study, career skills training and talks by graduates with disabilities and by employers who hire people with disabilities, helping young people to plan their path into higher education. SWU staff and student volunteers ran an information booth about studying at SWU.

Figure 2: SWU executives, partner organisations and young people with disabilities at the event "Bangkok Youth with Disabilities: Study Well, Find Work", Innovation Building, SWU, 26 November 2025

Figure 3: Secondary school students with disabilities with SWU executives and partners (left), and SWU staff and students with a young participant (right)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/swudss/posts/pfbid07EFvuUyEALTfHSuDnUg7Jw5Hjq8UHpwPdcphmt6NoYnmNK2qBStnrXtMHN218yZEl

Following admitted students with individual support

Once disabled students are admitted, the SWU Disability Support Services (DSS) Center at the Student Affairs Division continues to follow each student. The center provides support for learning and examinations, lends assistive equipment and runs the SWU Buddy programme, in which student volunteers help classmates with disabilities in daily campus life. On 4 September 2025, the center organised Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training for a student with a visual impairment from the Faculty of Humanities, with an O&M specialist from the Ratchasuda Institute, Mahidol University. The student practised using a white cane, crossing campus roads safely and using lifts, so that she could travel around the university on her own.

Figure 4: DSS staff and the O&M specialist with a student with a visual impairment at the Student Affairs Office, 4 September 2025

Figure 5: The student practising travel with a white cane along campus routes (left) and crossing a campus road with the help of a security guard (right)

Figure 6: The student learning to find and use lift buttons by touch

Source: https://www.facebook.com/swudss/posts/pfbid0o5FeS8v7PkwTjUbrycT6jUu3sy86f1TwZ1dhZDa4PkoU7pF7hpzAxDez7YdDFgogl

The center also prepares the wider university to support these students. In 2025, it recruited student volunteers for SWU Buddy, and from 17 to 19 December 2025 it ran a training programme for lecturers and academic advisers from every faculty on teaching students with special needs in the 2025 academic year.

Figure 7: Invitation to the training programme for lecturers on teaching students with special needs, 17–19 December 2025 (left), and the call for SWU Buddy volunteers (right)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/swudss

By giving underrepresented groups their own application channels and following them after admission, SWU makes sure that it can measure and track applications and admissions of these students and respond to their needs, contributing to SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.