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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIn his welcome remarks, Asst. Prof. Dr. Suppakorn Poonyarith, Vice President of NXPO, said that the theme \u201cAdvancing a Fair Society through Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts\u201d was developed from the four previous dialogue sessions, which examined Thailand\u2019s major challenges, ranging from understanding people and society to policy design, human capacity development, reducing gaps, and expanding opportunities. These discussions led to an important question for this session: To move toward a fairer future, how should we lay the foundations for society and the policy system?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEquity\u201d is not simply about \u201ccreating equality.\u201d It means creating systems that enable people from all groups to access resources and knowledge, develop their potential, participate, and have opportunities to shape their own futures. This is where the social sciences, humanities, and arts play a crucial role. More importantly, the question is how the higher education, science, research, and innovation system can integrate knowledge from these fields to advance equity, expand opportunities for social mobility, and promote sustainable development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNXPO hopes that this forum will not be the endpoint of the Policy Dialogue Series, but rather the starting point for bringing the knowledge and recommendations from all five sessions into policy design and practical implementation. This will elevate the role of the social sciences, humanities, and arts as a vital force in helping us design the society we want to see in the future,\u201d Dr. Suppakorn said.<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nAsst. Prof. Dr. Phrae Sirisakdamkoeng, Director of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC), <\/strong>introduced the topic \u201cCultural Equity and Recognition of Diversity,\u201d explaining that cultural rights are part of human rights and that cultural equity should be based on three key elements: recognition, access, and shared power. She noted that the social sciences, humanities, and arts play an important role in creating a fair knowledge system by asking critical questions such as: \u201cWho benefits? Who bears the risks? And whose voices are missing from the system?\u201d She cited the S\u00e1mi Indigenous people in Scandinavia as an example illustrating the difference between a research system that views communities as \u201cobjects of study\u201d and one that recognizes communities as \u201cknowledge creators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Phrae also proposed that higher education institutions should make changes to their education, community engagement, research, and evaluation systems. Universities should work with communities to jointly identify research questions, develop curricula and knowledge that respond to local needs, and create data systems in which communities have a role in governance and rights over their data. Living labs and policy labs should also be used as spaces for jointly designing change. In teaching and learning, students should be equipped to recognize bias and develop an awareness of injustices experienced by others. They should learn to understand context, connect personal experiences with social structures, listen without speaking on behalf of others, and make responsible decisions together with those affected. At the same time, research should provide opportunities for affected people to participate in setting research questions and throughout the research process, while creating feedback loops that return research findings to communities, in line with the transdisciplinary research approach. University and research evaluation systems should also move beyond placing primary emphasis on quantitative outputs toward assessing people\u2019s experiences and the actual changes taking place in communities. This would enable the higher education, science, research, and innovation system to become a mechanism that not only creates knowledge but also helps advance the rights, dignity, and equity of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gamolporn Sonsri from the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University,<\/strong> presented perspectives on \u201cEquity in Knowledge and Opportunities.\u201d She said that equity should be considered across at least three dimensions: access to education, learning resources, data, and research; access to quality knowledge and opportunities for continuous learning; and the ability to translate knowledge and skills into opportunities, improved quality of life, and better incomes. Knowledge inequality does not begin when people enter university; rather, it accumulates from childhood. Education, research, innovation, and lifelong learning therefore need to be connected as a continuous pathway that enables people to return to learning, develop their skills, and apply knowledge to improve their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Gamolporn said that, in the research system, the role of people and communities should shift from being merely sources of information, research subjects, or beneficiaries to becoming \u201cco-creators of knowledge\u201d through co-creation processes. Local knowledge and experience should be integrated with academic knowledge, government mechanisms, and the capabilities of the business sector. The social sciences, humanities, and arts play an important role in understanding power structures, relationships and interests, human values, and communication with people. They can also help connect existing mechanisms and resources with efforts to systematically reduce inequality, with social innovation serving as an important tool\u2014from developing an \u201cinequality map\u201d to creating mechanisms for applying and scaling up results in practice. Universities in local areas, in particular, should serve as knowledge brokers, connecting research-based knowledge with community challenges and local wisdom. Support systems and incentives for researchers should also be adjusted to place greater value on the social utilization of research. Assessments of equity should cover the entire \u201cupstream\u2013midstream\u2013downstream\u201d chain, enabling the system to jointly define, create, use, monitor, and evaluate knowledge and transform it into opportunities and improved quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n Asst. Prof. Dr. Thanyaporn Soontornthum, Director of the Thammasat Institute of Area Studies (TIARA),<\/strong> called for a reconsideration of national investment in research and innovation. Such investment should not focus solely on creating intellectual property, patents, unicorn companies, or economic returns. It should also consider who can participate, who can access technologies, and which groups benefit from innovation. To create fair futures, investment systems should take into account key principles, including distributive justice, fairness in participation and outcomes, and a balance between incentives for businesses to invest in intellectual property and the rights of SMEs, small-scale entrepreneurs, and vulnerable groups to access technologies. This means creating an inclusive innovation ecosystem that allows citizens and small businesses to become co-creators of innovation. It also requires adjusting funding management to connect the public, private, academic, and civil society sectors, reduce siloed approaches, and promote place-based design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Thanyaporn added that the social sciences can play a direct role in designing a just transition, particularly when industrial structures are undergoing change. One example is the transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs). The challenge involves not only developing batteries and technologies or attracting investment, but also designing industrial policies that align with environmental goals while maintaining employment stability; managing the impacts of new industries on local areas and resources; designing social safety nets and reskilling systems for workers in existing industries; and creating mechanisms to help SMEs and parts manufacturers in existing supply chains apply their existing knowledge and capabilities to new industries, ensuring that they are not left behind by technological transitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Thanyaporn also noted that the social sciences can help design governance and rules for new industrial systems while leveraging national competitiveness. She proposed system reforms to help social scientists better understand the challenges of industrial transformation, create greater opportunities for social science research proposals to access innovation funding, and revise research evaluation criteria. Rather than focusing solely on commercial outcomes, efficiency, or productivity, evaluations should also consider reductions in inequality, the creation of new opportunities, and whether transitions generate benefits broadly across society. This would create a research and innovation system that is not only competitive but also enables all sectors to participate in, access, and benefit equitably from change.<\/p>\n\n\n Dr. Wimonmat Srichamroen, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University,<\/strong> discussed institutional equity and governance. She said it is necessary to begin by reconsidering \u201cfor whom\u201d institutions and public policies are creating equity and the extent to which people can access and benefit from the knowledge generated by institutions. Policy design should not view society as a mechanical system operating according to a single pattern. Instead, it must recognize that policies are implemented for \u201chuman beings,\u201d whose behaviors, feelings, and life circumstances differ. Governance should therefore extend beyond the concept of good governance to encompass structures, ecosystems, processes, mechanisms, evaluation, and learning and development (L&D), enabling institutions and policy systems to learn and adapt to changing social contexts and needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Wimonmat emphasized that the key to designing equitable policies is to understand and empower those affected by policies before inviting them to participate. This means moving beyond simple participation toward meaningful engagement, in which people can help shape directions and decision-making. At the same time, institutions should move from reactive to proactive approaches through environmental analysis and risk management, enabling them to anticipate and prevent impacts before problems arise. They should also create space for interdisciplinary work, enabling different fields to recognize the value and contributions they can bring to one another in addressing complex social challenges. This aligns with the need to integrate the social sciences and humanities with other disciplines to create a fairer and more inclusive society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also emphasized the need to improve indicators, data, and evaluation so that they serve as effective tools for governance. Indicators should reflect effectiveness, outcomes, and actual changes rather than merely report activities or expenditures. Data disclosure should capture social impact alongside transparency and accountability. Evaluation research and a culture of learning from implementation outcomes should also be promoted, allowing lessons from both successful and unsuccessful efforts to inform continuous improvement and policy design.<\/p>\n\n\n Mr. Possapon Charoenporn, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University,<\/strong> discussed equity from a spatial perspective. He noted that economic opportunities, investment, innovation, and knowledge in Thailand tend to be concentrated in Bangkok and major cities, while many areas have limited access to these resources and opportunities. Inequality therefore occurs not only between groups of people but also across geographic areas, resulting in differences in development opportunities and quality-of-life outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Possapon suggested that universities can play an important role in distributing knowledge, innovation, and development opportunities across different areas. Many universities have been located in and working with local communities for a long time and therefore have personnel, knowledge, and an understanding of local contexts and needs. However, limitations and barriers still prevent university knowledge from being fully connected to local development. MHESI and its system can help address these limitations by supporting universities in developing knowledge and innovation that respond to the specific contexts of different areas. They can also create more opportunities for universities to work with communities, government agencies, businesses, and other local stakeholders, ensuring that knowledge and innovation are not concentrated only in major cities but can serve as mechanisms for distributing opportunities, supporting more balanced development, and reducing spatial inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n Toward the end of the session, Prof. Dr. Supasawad Chardchawarn, <\/strong>Rector of Thammasat University, delivered a keynote address titled \u201cReimagining University: A New Vision for Thai Universities to Create a Fair Society.\u201d<\/strong> His talk reflected on several key questions: Are universities today truly educational spaces and opportunities for people from all groups? Are they open and safe spaces for everyone? To what extent does research genuinely help reduce inequality? And to what extent do universities\u2019 internal management systems prioritize equity? He also pointed to pressures arising from neoliberal ideas that encourage universities to become more self-reliant, compete for student enrollment, and focus on rankings and standards, while placing greater emphasis on research publications than academic services. This raises an important question about the extent to which these outputs ultimately contribute to addressing national challenges and reducing inequality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Supasawad proposed five key approaches for reshaping the role of universities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reimagining the university does not mean requiring all universities to move in the same direction. Rather, it means creating space for each institution to define excellence in its own way and connect its missions in education, research, and social services with national challenges, particularly the need to expand opportunities and reduce inequality. Future curricula should therefore be flexible and interdisciplinary, connecting knowledge from multiple fields, developing skills for working with others, and allowing programs to be introduced, adapted, or discontinued in response to changes in society and the labor market. At the same time, university personnel should continuously reskill and upskill to keep pace with these changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watch the recording of the Policy Dialogue Series at https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/All_Policy_dialogue_2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nxpo.or.th\/th\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/\u0e23\u0e28.-\u0e14\u0e23.\u0e01\u0e21\u0e25\u0e1e\u0e23_02_0-2-1024x683.jpg\")
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