If DFCT — the Dental Faculty Consortium of Thailand — were likened to a great river, it would be a river of academic cooperation: a channel for mutual understanding, knowledge exchange, and shared management among Thailand’s dental faculties, replacing what once looked like each faculty going its own separate way.
Small tributaries began joining from the North (Chiang Mai University), the Northeast (Khon Kaen University), the Centre (Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University) and the South (Prince of Songkla University), and in doing so gave rise to thirty years of academic cooperation among Thai dentists.
I was asked by Secretary-General Dr. Waranun, as one of the organization’s longest-standing members, to recount how it all began — so that younger generations of dentists would know the story, on the occasion of DFCT’s 30th anniversary.
The source stream began at Erawan Resort, Mae Rim, Chiang Mai
It was October, some thirty years ago, when the weather in Chiang Mai turns pleasantly cool. The Faculty of Dentistry, Chiang Mai University, chose the Erawan Resort on the mountain in Mae Rim district — a quiet, cool, forested spot well suited to a retreat and seminar, some 40–50 km north of the city, not far past Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden. Nearby was a bottled mineral-water plant once endorsed by M.R. Thanadsri Svasti’s “Shell Chuan Chim” food column, which made me think the local water must be good. Further up the mountain lay Pong Yaeng sub-district, where, more than 35 years ago, our senior faculty colleague Dr. Som Isarapakdi — who once taught Dental Histology at the Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University — had resigned to open his own clinic and found the Bangkok Dental Supply company. To my mind he was a man of remarkable vision and originality.
In his memoir “I Was Born Before World War II” (published at age 86, with a preface written at 90, by Pheng Payia Press, edited by Dome Wuttichai), Dr. Som recalled living at 195 Soi 7, Pong Yaeng — a place people found unusual for a Bangkok native to settle in some 35 years earlier. He wrote of muddy roads that were hard to travel in the rainy season, of hearing that Pong Yaeng had good soil and abundant water with forest still intact, and of buying land there to grow orchids that need a cool climate, building a house for retreat even though the area then had no electricity, only abundant mountain water. Dr. Som went on to grow orchids as a hobby, selling them to tourists and abroad, winning many orchid-competition prizes.
I record this to honour our colleague and fellow dentist, whose vision made his home area a fitting birthplace for DFCT.
In later years, many others from elsewhere settled nearby, including the well-known writer “‘Rong Wongsawan.”
It was at this same Erawan Resort that the Faculty of Dentistry, Chiang Mai University, organised an academic seminar on the topic of “grading,” attended by administrators and faculty from the (then only) five dental faculties — Chulalongkorn, Mahidol, Khon Kaen and Prince of Songkla — deans and deputy deans for academic affairs among them. The two-day seminar, held 24–25 October 1983, was well attended (the full list of participants is too long to include here); those attending as deans, deputy deans or acting deans included Assoc. Prof. Wasan Tantivipawin, Assoc. Prof. Noppadol Supapiphat (Chulalongkorn), Assoc. Prof. Pisut Sangkhawes, Assoc. Prof. Choochote Thanaphum (Mahidol), Assoc. Prof. Anan Chirawiboon (Khon Kaen), Assoc. Prof. Samphan Srisuwan, Assoc. Prof. Thamrong Anantasan, and Assoc. Prof. Thanong Chatuthai, among others, with Assoc. Prof. Uthaiwan Kanjanakamol as MC. The seminar was both enjoyable and substantive for everyone involved.
What was the main problem at the time?
This seminar (DFCT did not yet exist) was held because of issues tied directly to our work: dental faculties, like other faculties, had just begun switching from a percentage-scoring system to a grading system, in order to align with international standards of assessment.
For example, at Chulalongkorn a passing score in each subject had to be (as I recall) 60%; below that meant failing the subject, and failing a re-sit meant repeating the year. Failing two major subjects, or one major and two minor subjects, meant repeating every subject that year, and failing again the following year meant expulsion.
During my own studies at Chulalongkorn, quite a few students failed (perhaps from not studying enough). Whether or not they admitted it to themselves, everyone who failed felt the strain, so we banded together in an informal support group with the grand name “Fellow of Dental Repeaters Association (F.D.R.A.).” I was a member myself — a club that DFCT’s Healthy Dental School project might do well to study, as one member (Police Major General Sermsuk Chandanachart, F.D.R.A., of Dr. Surin Chuchatthai’s cohort) once suggested (noted in the memorial book for Asst. Prof. Dr. Surin Chuchatthai).
The move to a grading system for pass/fail/expulsion decisions brought its own difficulties in setting assessment criteria, at times putting real pressure on teachers, students and faculty administrators alike.
Other major issues of the period included curriculum content, student quality, and debate over whether the University Bureau’s curriculum should run 4, 5 or 6 years.
What did we think?
One might call us the “Young Turks” of the time (though I’m not entirely sure that fits). We shared the view that, with so many common problems, working separately made little sense. At that time only Chulalongkorn was a long-established faculty (43 years old); Mahidol was next (15 years), with a number of senior staff who had trained at Chulalongkorn. The other faculties were essentially new — Chiang Mai (11 years), Khon Kaen (4 years), and Prince of Songkla barely a year old — with faculty who were themselves largely new to teaching and still finding their feet.
We felt the time had come to work together to strengthen the academic profession through a shared system rather than each faculty acting alone. The goal was an association of dental schools, with the hope that it might eventually evolve into a Dental Council.
So what did we do?
We agreed that once the seminar at Erawan Resort ended and we came down from the mountain, the Faculty of Dentistry, Chiang Mai University — as host of the seminar — would follow through until the plan bore fruit. And so it did.
The first meeting of what was then called the “Meeting of Thai Dental Faculty Administrators” was held on 7 December 1983, hosted by the Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University, to set objectives, goals and a way forward. Each meeting was attended by deans, deputy deans and assistant deans from the five faculties, together with the President of the Dental Association of Thailand. The key goal was the “Project to Establish an Association of Dental Schools.”
Meetings then continued steadily every 1–2 months, with faculties rotating as host and chair.