In 1972, Wat Phra Dhammakaya started a program called "Dhammadayada" ('heirs of the Dhamma'), a meditation training program focused on university students. Wat Phra Dhammakaya emphasized youth and young adults in its orientation from its outset. The Buddhist societies of many of Thai universities and colleges were led by supporters of the temple, many coming from the "Dhammadayada" program, though in the mid-1990s this influence grew weaker. In 1981, the temple also started organizing a contest called 'Path of Progress' (). In this program, schools all over Thailand competed in their knowledge of Buddhist ethics, which was designed to complement the national education system, which the temple believed had become too secularized. Due to the large number of students joining the temple's activities, who in the 1970s tended to be leftist, for a brief period Wat Phra Dhammakaya was accused of supporting the Communist insurgency in Thailand and the student uprisings in the 1970s.