Thammasat University, Pattaya Campus.

Thammasat University, Pattaya Campus at a glance

Thammasat's Pattaya campus sits inside Pattaya's own district, in Tambon Pong, Bang Lamung. The land came from Thong Thaworn Industry Co., Ltd., whose chairman Dr. Thaworn Phornprapha gave 565 rai 3 ngan 35 sq wa on three conditions recorded in the deed of gift -- that it be used for teaching, research and public benefit; that the company might farm the undeveloped part in the meantime; and that the site carry the name Thaworn-Usa Phornprapha. A second gift of 18 rai 2 ngan 74 sq wa from Dr. Phornthep Phornprapha, in the 2019 budget year, brought the campus to its present 584 rai 3 ngan 3 sq wa. The often-quoted 584-rai figure is therefore the total after two gifts three decades apart, not the size of the original donation.

The university council resolved on 30 January 1995 to put a Higher Education Innovation Centre on the site, and the then-Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn -- now King Rama X -- laid the foundation stone of its training and seminar buildings on Tuesday 25 February 1997. For its first decade the site really was a conference venue: a 75-room hotel, banqueting and seminar halls, a clubhouse and pool, marketed as a learning resort. Master's teaching arrived in the first semester of 2006 (four programmes, including technology management and a politics-and-government course for executives). Undergraduate teaching arrived in the 2015 budget year with Automotive Engineering (English programme) and Software Engineering; Automotive Technology Engineering was added in 2017, so the campus's three best-known bachelor's programmes did not all start together.

Since 12 January 2019 the campus has been a designated EEC promotion zone for medicine and health -- EECmd -- and the university's own history page records a 980-million-baht appropriation, committed across the 2021-2023 budget years, to build Thammasat University Hospital, Pattaya Campus as a digital hospital. That is the university's stated plan and budget as published; confirm the hospital's current operating status with Thammasat directly before assuming it as healthcare cover for a move.

Notable facts

• 565 rai 3 ngan 35 sq wa donated by Thong Thaworn Industry Co., Ltd.; a second gift of 18 rai 2 ngan 74 sq wa in the 2019 budget year took the campus to 584 rai 3 ngan 3 sq wa.
• Foundation stone of the training and seminar buildings laid by then-Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn on 25 February 1997; master's teaching from 2006, first bachelor's programmes from 2015.
• Declared an EECmd medical and health promotion zone on 12 January 2019; a 980-million-baht university hospital was budgeted across 2021-2023 -- check its current status with the university.