Action demanded after Pathumwan and Uthenthawai campus student fight

The managements of Pathumwan Institute of Technology and the Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok’s Uthenthawai Campus have been ordered to take decisive disciplinary action against any of their students who engaged in fistfights in the Mah Boonkrong shopping mall on Saturday evening, injuring five people, one of them seriously.

Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Supamas Isarabhakdi said today that the violent incident was brazen and unacceptable, because it took place in a shopping mall, causing many shoppers to panic.

She said that the managements of the two universities must cooperate with the police in the investigation and any subsequent prosecutions.

It is reported that the rival students fought on the 6th floor of the mall at about 7pm. Five were injured. Two suffered knife wounds and one of them is in serious condition. No shoppers were injured and four suspects were arrested.

Meanwhile, Jessada Denduangboripant, a lecturer at the Faculty of Science at Chulalongkorn University, urged Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to order the relocation of the Uthenthawai institute out of Bangkok, to end the decades-old rivalry between the cohorts of students, which are both in the Pathumwan district of Bangkok.

The Uthenthawai campus is located on a 3.2 hectare plot of land belonging to Chulalongkorn University. The land rental contract with the university expired in 2003 and an alternative 5.76 hectare site, in Muang district of Samut Prakan, has been offered by the Treasury Department for relocation.

On December 14th, 2022, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered Uthenthawai to relocate to the new site, but the alumni association has persistently resisted, claiming that the institute was founded in line with the wishes of King Rama 6.