Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University
The province's university sits on the Khao Sa Hong hills in tambon Na Fai, Mueang Chaiyaphum district, about 12.5 kilometres north of the town centre with its front boundary on the Chaiyaphum–Tat Ton road. The land is worth a sentence of its own: 1,439 rai of public land donated by the Na Fai tambon council, plus more than 42 further rai donated by villagers of Na Fai and Huai Chan, for a total of over 1,480 rai. The institution began as a project in 1994, operating from a temporary office at the Chaiyaphum Physical Education College before moving to the current site on 12 August 1998. Two official-side sources disagree on the cabinet approval date — one gives 29 April 1997, the other a 15-million-baht budget approval on 9 April 1997 — and we print both rather than pick one. A Royal Decree established Chaiyaphum Rajabhat Institute with effect from 12 July 2001, which the university treats as its founding day, and the Rajabhat University Act, signed on 10 June 2004 and published in the Royal Gazette on 14 June 2004, elevated it to Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University with full juristic-person status. It carries faculties of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Nursing, Education, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Political Science, plus master's-level study.
The Faculty of Nursing, and the province's nursing question
Chaiyaphum Rajabhat's Faculty of Nursing was formerly the Phraya Phakdi Chumphon Nursing College — named for the province's founding hero — and its Bachelor of Nursing Science curriculum was approved by the University Council at its fifth meeting of 2006 on 16 October that year, with institutional accreditation from the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council dated 8 February 2008. That matters because of what is NOT here. Thailand's Praboromarajchanok Institute network of Boromarajonani nursing colleges lists its Northeastern colleges as Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Sanpasitthiprasong, Udon Thani, Surin and Si Mahasarakham — there is no Chaiyaphum college in that network, and any reference you find to a 'Boromarajonani College of Nursing Chaiyaphum' is mistaken. Nursing education in this province is delivered by the Rajabhat, not by the national nursing-college network, and that is a genuinely useful distinction for anyone researching healthcare training or employment here.
Chaiyaphum Technical College — older than the university by sixty years
The province's vocational sector is deeper and much older than its university sector, which is common in Isaan and often overlooked. Chaiyaphum Technical College was founded on 20 December 1938 as the Chaiyaphum Carpentry School, moving to Non Muang Road on 20 June 1939. It became the Chaiyaphum Trade School in 1959, the Chaiyaphum Technical School in 1979, and was elevated to Chaiyaphum Technical College on 1 April 1981, relocating to Crown Property land in tambon Rop Mueang that had previously been a Royal Thai Air Force airfield. It now occupies about 115 rai at 260 Moo 4 in tambon Nai Mueang with 20 buildings and 150 rooms, and runs fourteen vocational-certificate programmes plus two in the dual system, eighteen higher-vocational-certificate programmes plus eleven dual-system, and six bachelor's degrees in the dual system. A separate Chaiyaphum College of Agriculture and Technology also exists in the province. For anyone considering teaching English here, the vocational sector is where a large share of the jobs are.
What does not exist here
Three negatives worth stating explicitly, because each of them appears somewhere as a plausible-sounding claim. There is no Rajamangala University of Technology Isan campus in Chaiyaphum: RMUTI's own campus listing gives Nakhon Ratchasima as the centre plus Khon Kaen, Sakon Nakhon and Surin, with a project to establish a Roi Et campus at Thung Kula Ronghai — no Chaiyaphum. There is no Boromarajonani nursing college here, as above. And there is no international-curriculum school anywhere in the province, which is the one that will matter most to relocating families. We are stating that as a verified absence rather than a coverage gap, because it rests on a positive check: Wikipedia's province-by-province list of international schools in Thailand, which we read in full, contains no Chaiyaphum entry at all, while listing one school in Khon Kaen, four in Nakhon Ratchasima, one in Roi Et, one in Ubon Ratchathani and two in Udon Thani.
The nearest international school, named because we checked it
The nearest international-curriculum school to Chaiyaphum whose curriculum we individually verified is Anglo Singapore International School in Nakhon Ratchasima, at 1688/18 Mittraphap Road in Mueang Nakhon Ratchasima — about 122 kilometres from Chaiyaphum by road. Its own site states that it fully meets the Singaporean curriculum framework while integrating key elements of UK and Cambridge curricula, and that the programme culminates in Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A-Level examinations. We are naming it because we read that on the school's own page; we did not verify its fee schedule and publish none. Nakhon Ratchasima has three other international schools on the national list which we did not individually check and therefore do not name. Khon Kaen, about 127 kilometres in the other direction, has one on the list; we found a Cambridge-accredited BILINGUAL school there, which is a different category, and we also found a third-party directory listing a 'Khon Kaen International School' with the same phone number and website as that bilingual school — so we treat the Khon Kaen options as unresolved and name none of them.
Thai schools, and what we did not check
Chaiyaphum's Thai state system runs across sixteen districts, 124 subdistricts and 1,393 villages, and one of the province's own sale listings references a Chaiyaphum School for the Deaf, so specialist provision exists. But BAANLYY did not verify individual Thai schools in this province — not their English Programme offerings, not their examination results, not their intake policies for foreign children — and we are not going to name any of them on the strength of a directory entry. That is a gap in OUR coverage rather than a claim about the province, and it is the sort of gap our guide-depth work fills later. If you are moving here with children who will attend a Thai school, treat this page as telling you what the tertiary and vocational landscape looks like, and go and visit the schools themselves.
Chaiyaphum education FAQ
Is there an international school in Chaiyaphum?
No. Wikipedia's province-by-province list of international schools in Thailand, which we read in full, contains no Chaiyaphum entry at all — while listing one school in Khon Kaen, four in Nakhon Ratchasima, one in Roi Et, one in Ubon Ratchathani and two in Udon Thani. That is a positive check rather than a failure to find something, which is why we state it as an absence. The nearest school whose curriculum we individually verified is Anglo Singapore International School in Nakhon Ratchasima, at 1688/18 Mittraphap Road, about 122 kilometres south: its own site states it follows the Singaporean curriculum framework with UK and Cambridge elements and culminates in Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A-Level exams. We did not verify its fees. For a family needing an international curriculum, the realistic options are boarding, a weekly commute, or living in Nakhon Ratchasima instead.
What universities are in Chaiyaphum?
One: Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University, on the Khao Sa Hong hills in tambon Na Fai, about 12.5 kilometres north of the town centre, on more than 1,480 rai donated by the Na Fai tambon council and by local villagers. It began as a project in 1994, moved to its present site on 12 August 1998, became Chaiyaphum Rajabhat Institute by Royal Decree effective 12 July 2001, and was elevated to a full university under the Rajabhat University Act signed 10 June 2004 and published in the Royal Gazette on 14 June 2004. Its faculties are Liberal Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Nursing, Education, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Political Science, with master's-level study as well. To be explicit about what is not here: there is no Rajamangala University of Technology Isan campus in Chaiyaphum — RMUTI's own listing gives Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen, Sakon Nakhon and Surin, plus a Roi Et project.
Are there teaching jobs in Chaiyaphum?
The sector exists and it is larger on the vocational side than the university side. Chaiyaphum Technical College, founded in 1938 as a carpentry school and elevated to college status in 1981, occupies about 115 rai in tambon Nai Mueang with 20 buildings and 150 rooms, and runs fourteen vocational-certificate programmes, eighteen higher-vocational-certificate programmes and six bachelor's degrees in the dual system. There is also a Chaiyaphum College of Agriculture and Technology. Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University adds seven faculties plus graduate study. Together with the Thai state school system across sixteen districts, that is a real if modest English-teaching job market. What BAANLYY has not done is verify current vacancies, salaries or visa sponsorship at any of these institutions, so treat this as a description of the landscape rather than as job-market advice.
Is there a nursing school in Chaiyaphum?
Yes, but not the one you might expect from the national pattern. Nursing here is taught by the Faculty of Nursing at Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University, which was formerly the Phraya Phakdi Chumphon Nursing College; its Bachelor of Nursing Science curriculum was approved by the University Council on 16 October 2006 and it received institutional accreditation from the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council on 8 February 2008. What does NOT exist is a Boromarajonani College of Nursing in Chaiyaphum: the Praboromarajchanok Institute's own network listing gives its Northeastern colleges as Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Sanpasitthiprasong, Udon Thani, Surin and Si Mahasarakham, with no Chaiyaphum entry. If you have seen a reference to one, it is mistaken. This matters practically because the provincial hospital is a regional-tier facility with a medical education centre, so clinical training capacity in the province is real — it just runs through the Rajabhat rather than the national nursing-college network.
Sources & References
- Chaiyaphum Rajabhat University — university history
- List of international schools in Thailand — Wikipedia
- Anglo Singapore International School, Korat — academics
- Chaiyaphum Technical College — about
- RMUTI campuses — Rajamangala University of Technology Isan
- Chaiyaphum province — Wikipedia
- Tourism Authority of Thailand
Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.
Related Chaiyaphum guides
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Hero photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels. School curricula, accreditations, programmes and fees change — confirm current details with the institutions directly before making any decision.
