opinion

IN RECENT YEARS universities across the world have been going through enormous pressures to transform. From the United Kingdom to the United States, from South Korea to Singapore, the call to become a "World-Class University" is loud and clear.

BANGKOK, Thailand — When Thai political crises heat up, it begins: a nationwide game of hushed speculation revolving around one question. Will the military stage yet another coup? For now, the man with the answers is on the opposite side of the world.

The military has repeatedly denied it, Democrats apparently aren't worried about it. Yet, a coup remains a compelling prospect for many. Here are the caes for and against the possibility of it happening.

His mates back in Newcastle, where he was born, and at Eton, where he was schooled, knew him as Mark, a soccer fanatic who later scored first-class honors at Oxford. Today, Thailand's urbane Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, says he dreamed of leading his Southeast Asian nation ever since he was a little boy, but he still seems more comfortable roaming the corridors of international diplomacy than engaging in the rough-and-tumble politics of his homeland. Just days ago, the 45-year-old economist headed to New York City to hobnob with world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. In his inaugural speech to the international body on Sept. 26, Abhisit is expected to reference everything from sustainable development and foreign-investment incentives to the wisdom of Alfred Lord Tennyson. No doubt he will be warmly received.

BANGKOK — After each major Bangkok street protest finally fizzles, a fresh damage tab is drawn for the torched city buses, seized airports, tour group cancellations and even mangled shrubbery at the often-seized prime minister’s compound.