A Survey of Thai Studies Knowledge in Higher Education Institutions in Russia: A Case Study of Dissertations

Abstract

This paper is a survey of Thai studies in Russian higher education institutions in order to study the characteristics of the dissertations and analyze trends and gaps. Its purpose is to develop knowledge of Thai studies in Russian higher education institutions through electronic databases from the Russian State Library for the time period 1975–2019. We found 29 dissertations about Thai studies. Results show that the two main dissertation groups are Thai history and culture, and Thai language and literature, and that most Russian published dissertations on Thai studies are produced in Moscow. Second, although dissertations on Thai studies increased when the Russian government changed to a democracy, the research became more widely distributed outside the capital. From our findings, we suggest that research development in Thai studies should promote research on Thai studies in the various fields of humanities and also push research on Thai studies to be in line with a modern era that is full of innovation and technology; at the same time, we suggest that academic cooperation should be expanded at the tertiary level in both countries in order to improve the knowledge of Thai studies in Russian higher education institutions and for it to have more variety.