AR-ChEPS vs. AR+-ChEPS

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AR stands for Academic-Research, a new initiative created in 2017 by the Department of Chemical Engineering. AR-ChEPS is another special track in the ChEPS program (the other being IR-ChEPS).  While IR-ChEPS has successfully addressed the needs of ChEPS students and SCG-Chem, AR-ChEPS was created to also benefit the Department and its thesis advisors.  AR-ChEPS students work on thesis projects proposed by faculty members in the Department of Chemical Engineering which allow the work to be published in conference proceedings and journals, thus boosting the KPI of the Department.

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The key difference between AR-ChEPS and regular ChEPS is that all AR-ChEPS will undergo a 12-credit-hour of research thesis in which the output must be presented in a conference proceedings with the option to publish.  To accommodate the more intense emphasis on thesis,  AR-ChEPS students are required to take only 10 courses instead of the required 13 courses in the ChEPS curriculum and their internship period will be cut in half, from 5 months (one semester) to 2.5 months (3 credits) during the the second year.

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AR-ChEPS is further subdivided into AR and AR+. The difference is that AR+ has an additional internship component which requires that a student spend 10 weeks (2.5 months) at an industrial site working on an industrial project.

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Here are additional information about AR-ChEPS:

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1. Unlike IR-ChEPS, AR-ChEPS is part of the ChEPS admission process in which applicants who are offered half scholarships (and possibly Soft-loan) are asked if they like to be considered for AR-ChEPS.

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2. Once a student is in the AR-ChEPS track, his/her admission is automatically upgraded to Full Scholarship. An additional monthly stipend is also available for 24 months (2 years) for qualified students. For those with GPAs between 3.00 and 3.50, the monthly stipend is 3,000 baht, while those with GPAs above 3.50 will receive a monthly stipend of 6,000 baht.

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3. The following ChEPS courses will be waived for AR-ChEPS students:

(a) CHE 655: Fundamental of Chemical Engineering Practice (3 credit hours, Summer of Year 1)

(b) CHE 643: Petroleum and Petrochemical Process Chemistry (3 credit hours, Semester 1 of Year 1)

(c) CHE 657: Process Analysis and Modeling II (3 credit hours, Semester 2 of Year 1), or

     CHE 670: Business Management for Chemical Industry (3 credit hours, Semester 2 of Year 1)

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Finally, here is an FAQ document on the AR-ChEPS track.