Doctor of Communication Arts Program in Global Communication (International Program) has been offered by Bangkok University in collaboration with the School of Communication Studies, Ohio University since 1995. Although this program has been well received, a need to revise the curriculum arises. Two of major driving forces are paradigm shifts in communication and media industry due to exponential growth of the Internet and digital technologies and the dynamic global and multicultural environment such as “the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)”. Educational institutions at all levels must prepare their students for this new social and economic landscape, and an arrival of ASEAN integration and its collaboration with economic giants such as China, India, Japan and South Korea. Bangkok University (BU) as the oldest and largest private university in Thailand with its missions to produce creative graduates with an entrepreneurial spirit for the creative economy is committed to produce personnel and develop human resources qualified as global citizens for the future including the AEC. Accordingly, it is timely that a Ph.D. curriculum in Communication Arts is revised in order to reflect BU’s current missions and satisfy the human resources needs for society development to achieve its developmental goals.

The revised curriculum in Communication Arts is designed to develop researchers and professionals who are able to construct/deconstruct theories and the practice around human and digital communication through different philosophical approaches. It encompasses a range of communication topics and activities from face-to-face conversation to communication via mass media such as television, film, and the Internet, the creative arts and design, the evolution of technology to digital media and the business aspects of the communication industry.

The program is multidisciplinary and aims to produce graduates who are both professional and community-oriented in the field of communication. As two tracks of study – academic track and professional track — are uniquely offered, graduates of this program can enhance their research skills and take either academic or professional career paths.