Mahawitthayalai Songkhla Nakharin) is the first university in southern Thailand, established in 1967. The name of the university was granted by the King in honor of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol Adulyadej, Prince of Songkla, the King's father.
The university consists of four campuses and one education service area. In 1968, the first permanent campus was established in Pattani. The campus in Hat Yai was opened in 1971 and is now the main campus, with more than 50% of the university's students. Other campuses were established in Phuket (1977) and Surat Thani (1990). Additionally, the Trang education service area was founded in 1991. As 2007, the university offers 295 educational programs to its 34,000 students, including 18 international programs and three foreign language programs.
Prince of Songkla University hosts hundreds of international students. The Phuket campus accommodates the most students from European and North American universities. The International Study Program in Phuket (ISPP) is multidisciplinary, offering courses in social sciences, history, intercultural communications, tourism, human resources, and international finance and economics.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Rankings
3 National Research Universities
History[edit]
In 1962 the Department of Provincial Administration was assigned by the Thai government, through the Southern Development Committee, to initiate a project to set up a university in southern Thailand in accordance with the Southern Development Plan. In 1965 the cabinet approved, in principle, that the main campus of the university was to be at Ruesamilae, an urban area of Pattani.
Since the Pattani site abuts the sea, very high humidity and sea water vapor would lead to prohibitive maintenance costs for the upkeep of the engineering laboratory equipment and engineering teaching facilities. It was agreed to relocate the Faculty of Engineering to a new site. After a long search, it was decided that the Faculty of Engineering should be located in Hat Yai District, Songkhla Province. Lady Atthakraweesunthorn agreed to donate a plot of land totaling 690 rai (approximately 276 acres) at Tambon Korhong, Hat Yai district, Songkla Province, which was to be used as a new campus of Prince of Songkla University where the Faculty of Engineering would be based.
In 1968 the National Assembly of Thailand passed the Prince of Songkla University Act, which became effective on 13 March of that year. Prince of Songkla University thus proclaimed 13 March as its “Foundation Day”. In 1969, the construction at Hat Yai campus was started. On 5 July 1971 when it was partially completed, about two hundred students and staff members of the Faculty of Engineering were moved to the new campus at Hat Yai.
Rankings[edit]
Prince of Songkla University is always ranked in the top 10 universities of Thailand. The university was 481st worldwide in 2006 and 525th in 2007 in THES - QS World University Rankings which was the 7th and 6th Thai universities on the list, respectively.
In the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, the university performs as a successful cyber-university. In Thailand, it has topped the list of Thai universities for five non-consecutive times in 2008, 2009, and 2011. Prince of Songkla University is the first Thai university to make top 400 (January 2008), top 300 (January 2009) and top 200 (July 2009) of the world rankings. In July 2009, the university was ranked 175th in the world, 18th in Asia and 2nd in the Southeast Asia behind the National University of Singapore.
National Research Universities[edit]
Prince of Songkla University a member of 9 universities of Thailand National Research Universities Project
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