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Thamasat University Pier
Thammasat University (RTGS: Mahawitthayalai Thammasat; IPA: [t?ammásà?t]) is Thailand's second oldest university. It was founded in 1934 as University of Moral Science and Politics and later had the name shortened to the present one by virtue of an order of the Revolutionary Council. It was changed from an open university to admission by competitive examination in 1960. Thammasat has often been involved in Thai national politics. Its campus was the site of the 14 October 1973 uprising and the 6 October 1976 Massacre.
It now has eighteen faculties/institutes and is regarded as one of the most selective universities in Thailand. Since its establishment, more than 240,000 students have studied in Thammasat, including several Prime Ministers, Bank of Thailand governors, senior politicians, officials and specialists in all fields of academics.
The university's original campus, Tha Phrachan Centre, is located in Phra Nakhon, Bangkok which is in close proximity to many tourist destinations in Bangkok. The Rangsit campus, where most undergraduate programmes are currently held, is in Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani. Thammasat has smaller regional campuses in Lampang, Pattaya, Narathiwat, and Udon Thani. It is ranked No.447 in the world by QS.
History
The monument of Pridi Banomyong at Tha Phrachan Campus
University of Moral and Political Sciences
Thammasat University began in 1934 as an open university called the University of Moral Science and Politics; this was two years after Siamese revolution of 1932 and eighteen years after Chulalongkorn University had been founded. Thammasat University was the idea of Pridi Banomyong, architect of the 1932 coup and the then Minister of Interior, who drafted the Act of University of Moral and Political Science 1934. The university was inaugurated on 27 June 1934, and Pridi served as the university's first rector.
The university is a result of the sixth principle of the Khana Ratsadon. The first announcement of Khana Ratsadon stated they "must provide the people with full education" because people "lack education, which is reserved for royals". The desire of students at the School of Law to see their institution upgraded to a university rather than simply a department at Chulalongkorn University also helped Thammasat University become the successor of the Law School. The property and faculty of the Law School were transferred to University of Moral and Political Science, and the building of the old Law School was the first Thammasat site. The university moved to Tha Phrachan campus the following year.
When the university opened, 7094 people applied for admission. At that time Chulalongkorn University was graduating only 68 students a year. Thammasat initially offered a bachelor's degree with an emphasis on legal studies and previously banned economics and political science, plus a bachelor's degree equivalent diploma in accountancy. Master's degree courses soon followed in law, political science, and economics, and doctoral degree courses in law, political science, economics, and diplomacy.
During its early years, the university did not rely on government funding, but instead relied on its low tuition fees and interest paid by the Bank of Asia for Industry and Commerce, in which the university owned 80 percent of the shares.
Under Pridi's leadership, the University became the clandestine headquarter of the Free Thai anti-Japanese underground during the Second World War. Ironically, the University campus also functioned as an interment camp for Allied civilians, with Thai guards more or less protecting them from abuses by the occupying Japanese. The internment camp was where the Multipurpose Building now stands.
Reform
The coup d'état on 8 November 1947 marked the end of an era. Pridi Banomyong left the country and went into exile. The original Thammasat degree was replaced by specialised departments in 1949, when the Faculties of Law, Political Science, Commerce and Accountancy, and Economics were founded. The university was forced to sell its bank shares, thus becoming dependent on government funding. The words and political were removed from its name, and Thammasat was no longer an open university. A new Thammasat University Act was passed in 1952. Thammasat added four more faculties during the 1950s and 1960s: Social Administration, Journalism and Mass Communication, Liberal Arts, and Sociology and Anthropology.
Bloody October protests
In 1973, Thammasat became the centre of the pro-democracy protest movement that led to the bloody uprising on 14 October. A large crowd, led by university students, assembled at Thammasat University to protest the arrest of thirteen pro-democracy student activists. The protest continued for several days before a bloody confrontation took place at the Democracy Monument. When Thailand's military leaders fled into exile, Sanya Dharmasakti, then Thammasat rector, was appointed as the Prime Minister of Thailand.
6 October Memorial at Tha Phrachan
Three years later, the 6 October 1976 Massacre took place on the Tha Phrachan campus. The event began with protests against the return of exiled dictator Thanom Kittikachorn. Violence first appeared on 25 September when two EGAT employees who handed out protest literature in Nakhon Pathom were branded 'communists', beaten to death, and their bodies hung from a wall. This led to peaceful protests by labor groups, students, and other activists demanding the expulsion of Thanom.
On 4 October, students staged a play on the Thammasat campus to dramatize the hanging of the protesters in Nakhon Pathom. Several newspapers printed photographs of the mock hanging, however with one of the students retouched to resemble Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, implying that the students had committed lèse-majesté. Uniformed police and enraged right-wing paramilitary groups promptly surrounded Thammasat University. At dawn of 6 October the police and paramilitary groups attacked the protesters. The mayhem continued for several hours. Newspaper sources gave the number killed as between 43 and 46, but the actual figure may have been over a hundred, with several hundred more injured.[9] Many student protesters escaped by jumping into Chao Phraya River, where they were rescued by the sympathetic Royal Thai Navy.
Expansion
During the 1980s, Thammasat University built a new campus at Rangsit to house the new Faculty of Science and Technology. This faculty accepted its first students in 1985. The Faculty of Engineering opened at Rangsit in 1989, followed by the Faculty of Medicine in 1990. By the late 1990s, all first years students were studying at Rangsit. At present almost all undergraduate classes are taught at Rangsit, the exceptions being the international English language programmes. Graduate degree classes are also still taught at Tha Prachan.
The Rangsit campus was chosen as one of the venues for the 1998 Asian Games.
Thammasat University is a member of "Links to Asia by Organizing Traineeship and Student Exchange" (LAOTSE), an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia. It also cooperates with some of the top universities around the globe. Regional cooperation is maintained with the Greater Mekong Sub-region Academic and Research Network.
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