Abstract: “The economic crisis in 1997 caused tremendous changes to higher education system in Thailand, in particular the decentralization of university's administration. A number of Thai public universities have been gradually transforming to be autonomous universities. However, almost all cannot achieve the most important goal for academic excellence as reflected by global recognition. During the transitional period, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) was the only public university that transformed from a university under the Civil Services to be an autonomous public university. The university could sustain as one of the leading universities and be ranked in the top 400 World university by Times Higher Education (THE). It relatively outperformed other universities and was regarded as a role model for Thai higher education development. This research aimed to figure out how autonomous public universities could manage to secure from the Thai bureaucratic system and innovate”

Keywords: organizational change; autonomous universities