Redemptorist Technological College Nong Khai, under Royal Patronage.

What you get out of the other end

Vocational certificate (Business Computer) and higher vocational diploma (Digital Business Technology), plus a basic-education programme and short courses. No degree is awarded here.

Part of Redemptorist Foundation for People with Disabilities (the Father Ray Foundation).

On the founding date: Licensed as a formal private college on 16 May 2017 under the Private Schools Act B.E. 2550. The project behind it started in Nong Khai on 9 July 2009 and taught its first 18 students that October, before it had a licence or a campus.

Redemptorist College Nong Khai at a glance

This is the institution most easily missed on a list of Nong Khai's colleges, and the one most worth knowing about. It is a vocational college for people with physical disabilities -- amputation, paralysis, polio, muscular weakness -- run by the Redemptorist Foundation for People with Disabilities, the charity founded by Father Raymond Allyn Brennan, and it sits at 201 Moo 4, Soi Don Daeng 3, Mi Chai Subdistrict, Mueang Nong Khai District, on a 20-rai site.

It teaches free. Students pay no tuition and receive accommodation and three meals a day. The current programme is a vocational certificate in Business Computer and a higher vocational diploma in Digital Business Technology, alongside a basic-education stream for disabled adults aged 15 to 45 who missed school entirely, and short courses in office computing, bakery and wheelchair repair. There is no degree here, and the college does not claim one.

The chronology matters because it explains why the college is absent from older lists. Two staff arrived in Nong Khai on 9 July 2009 to start the project, working out of space lent by St Alphonsus Church; the first 18 students began that October, while the 20-rai site was still being cleared. The first teaching building opened on 12 October 2013, a women's residence in 2015 and further buildings in 2016. The Office of the Vocational Education Commission licensed it as a formal college on 16 May 2017, and it was taken under the royal patronage of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn with effect from 12 March 2020.

For a resident, this is also a service, not only a school: the college runs an assistive-technology centre and a wheelchair-repair course in Mueang Nong Khai, in a province where that capability is otherwise thin.

Notable facts

• A vocational college specifically for people with physical disabilities, described by its own foundation as the first college of its kind in Thailand.
• Free: no tuition, with accommodation and three meals a day included.
• 201 Moo 4, Soi Don Daeng 3, Mi Chai Subdistrict, Mueang Nong Khai District; 042-465-645. A 20-rai site.
• Licensed by the Office of the Vocational Education Commission on 16 May 2017; under the royal patronage of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn from 12 March 2020.
• Teaches to higher-diploma level only -- a Digital Business Technology diploma is the ceiling. No degree is conferred here, and the college does not present one.
• Runs an assistive-technology centre and a wheelchair-technician short course, both open beyond the student body.

Sources & References

• Ministry of Education, 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.