January 29th, 1972 is the starting day of operation of the CUPT. The committee members had elected Prof.Dr.Arun Sorntesana, the president of Chulalongkorn University to be the first chairperson and Asst.Prof.Dr.Wijit Srisa-arn to be the secretariat. There were 12 founding member universities and extended to 16 universities later. Currently, there are 27 universities/institutes. Originally, it is named as “Rectors Conference” and it was changed to “Council of University Presidents of Thailand” which is an independent organization founded under the collaboration of presidents of thai universities/higher education institutes. They mutually agreed upon the idea of meetings and sharing experiences and opinions among them and setting the CUPT to be a centre of exchanging experiences and opinions, proposing initiative ideas about national higher education operations, and pushing forward those into reality.

Roles

According to the statement number 3 on the agreement of the meeting of university presidents in 1972, it reads, “the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) would be the center to exchange opinions and to cooperate under common interest between universities/institutes, which were bound on this agreement”. The CUPT will NOT be a political organization. In September 1979 (the 6^thmeeting of 1979), the CUPT reviewed on the roles and reissued as follows:

• The CUPT should be the place to provide collaboration and support universities development in many aspects but these would not overlap with the role of the Ministry of University Affairs (which now known as the Office of the Higher Education Commission – OHEC).
• The CUPT should be a central organization of public universities in order to suggest and advise the Ministry of University Affairs and the government, including delivering related essential actions to the government in many aspects.
• The CUPT must be an organization to set policy in the manner of actions or reflecting broad opinions in accord of beneficial issues or common problems among universities and offer suggestion to the government. While, issues that can be handled internally will be proceeded in collaborative among the network.

The CUPT is a liberty organization and does not involve any political activities. It is the centre of collaboration for ideas, creativity, and exchange experiences what are all about the common interest between higher education institutes’ activities. The operation is on the basis of flexibility and the liberty of each institute and avoid not to overlap with the role of the Ministry of University Affairs. Rather, the CUPT and the Ministry of University Affairs will promote and support each other for the shared benefits of higher education affairs of the nation. Roles of the CUPT are mainly depend on roles of member universities/institutes.

The Organization

• Working in the manner of quorum or assembly.
• There are two parts in the organization: the former part comprises a president, a vice president, and the other two colleagues EACH from universities/institutes. The latter part, as known as the CUPT secretary office, consists of a secretariat, vice secretariat(s), and officers.
• Currently, there are 84 persons from 31 universities/institutes.

The CUPT Secretary Office

• In the past, the CUPT secretary office was in the courtesy of the Ministry of University Affairs. Now, it works independently and locates in the building of the Office of the Higher Education Commission.
• The office is responsible for general administration, meetings cooperation, producing meeting reports, and conducting another appointed assignments, or operating related tasks according to the agreement from board meetings. Note: each board has a term of 4 years span.
• The secretariat of the CUPT is in charge of secretariat works and also a treasurer of the CUPT fund (since October 1^st, 1973). The treasurer work is to produce financial reports and submit the annual financial accounting of the fund within March 31^st.

Meetings of the CUPT

• The chairperson is appointed to call the board for regular meetings at least every 2 months.
• The chairperson of the CUPT will be elected from any current presidents of member universities/institutes and has office term of 1 year and the chair will nominate 2 vice chairpersons from any presidents of member universities/institutes.
• Regular meetings will alternatively be held at any appointed universities/institutes as the agreement of the particular board meeting. However, there will be only once a year to host at any of provincial universities/institutes.
• In 1981, there was a supplementary agreement to appoint the university/institute where its president is elected to be the CUPT chairperson to hold the first regular meeting of the particular year. Any other conditions and agreements are intact.

The Declaration on Mission and Status of the Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) in the New Millennium on October 30th, 1999

From the Meeting (5/1999) of the CUPT Hosted at the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA)
——————————————-
The CUPT committee declared the mission and status of the organization in the following:

1. The CUPT is going to increase the action of giving suggestions to the government in the aspect of policies. It also tends to guide community and society on problem solving, to develop and to immunize community and society in order to help sustainably developing the nation with wisdoms gaining from researching. This would lead to self-reliance on the basis of Thai culture and on the gracefully good relationship with foreign countries.
2. The CUPT is going to accelerate the excellency in academic of each universities/institutes on the ground of individual’s ideology by:
   1. 2.1 Strengthening the management section to gain flexibility, efficiency, verifiable transparency, and liberal manageability in the aspects of financial, academic, and personnel.
   2. 2.2 Encouraging public and private universities, including domestic and international ones, on academic collaboration in several aspects i.e. researching, academic services, academic quality assurance, teaching, inter-university transferring, staffs and students exchange programs, and internationally academic collaboration.
   3. 2.3 Encouraging universities to share academic resources for economical reasons and to boost efficiency.
3. The CUPT is going to conduct collaborative activities under special projects in order to encouraging universities’ actions, including:
   • • Promoting arts and cultures,
     • Conserving and developing local wisdoms and Thai wisdoms,
     • Promoting sports,
     • Activities to promote women’s role, peace, and environment.

   All activities involve with both local and global communities.

4. The CUPT is going to build a good relationship and understanding with the government, the community, and the society in order to make the collaboration on mission operations between universities and these parties possible. Especially, building a modern society to be knowledgeable and life-long learning society in every levels ranging from individuals, families, organizations, and communities.