Phetchaburi's universities.

The province's largest institution and the one most residents mean by 'the university'. It traces its roots to a 1926 teacher-training school, became Phetchaburi Teachers College in 1969, a Rajabhat Institute in 1995, and a full university in 2004. Eight faculties: Education; Management Science; Nursing and Allied Health Sciences; Information Technology; Agricultural Technology; Science and Technology; Humanities and Social Sciences; and Engineering and Industrial Technology. Enrolment is smaller than commonly quoted: the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) dataset for the first semester of academic year 2025 (B.E. 2568), reported 4 November 2025, records 6,860 students — 24th of the 35 Rajabhat universities that filed figures. The campus district north-west of the Old Town is a distinct rental sub-market in its own right, with the town's student-priced laundromats, salons and cafes clustered around it.

A full regional campus of one of Thailand's oldest public universities, at 1 Moo 3, Sam Phraya, Cha-am — inland from the Cha-am beachfront, roughly 40 km south of Phetchaburi town. Approved by cabinet resolution on 9 September 1997 under the then-Ministry of University Affairs' regional expansion programme, it was built on 621 rai of state land previously held by Phetchaburi College of Agriculture and Technology, with a further 200 rai added in 2003. Teaching did not begin until academic year 2002: the Faculty of Management Science opened on 23 May 2002, the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology was established on 12 March 2003, and Animal Sciences and Agricultural Technology students transferred here from the Sanam Chandra Palace campus in the same year. The campus today lists exactly three teaching faculties — Animal Sciences and Agricultural Technology, Management Science, and Information and Communication Technology — supported by the Campus Administration Division, the campus library and the campus digital technology office. It runs a formal Green Office programme and hosts other Thai universities on green-campus study visits.

A degree-awarding nursing college under the Praboromarajchanok Institute, the Ministry of Public Health's own higher-education body — not a department of either university, and routinely missed by guides that count only universities. It opened on 20 August 1990, with the college name plaque unveiled by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on the King's behalf. Its four-year Bachelor of Nursing Science has run continuously since 1997. Teaching is in Thai; the college states that it admits both Thai and international students who can use Thai well. For relocating households it matters less as a study option than as the reason Phetchaburi town has a steady supply of Thai-speaking nursing graduates working locally.

MCU is one of Thailand's two national Buddhist universities, and its Phetchaburi college sits at Wat Phra Rup, 65/1 Moo 6, Chong Sakae subdistrict, in Mueang Phetchaburi. It was upgraded in 2019 (B.E. 2562) from an academic service unit of MCU's Faculty of Social Sciences to a Buddhist college in its own right. It teaches bachelor's degrees in political science and in public administration alongside Buddhist studies in Buddhist management, and its own programme sites also list master's-level degrees in political science and public administration. Note that MCU was one of six state institutions that had not filed enrolment data in the MHESI report of 4 November 2025, so we can give no reliable student count for it.

Phetchaburi Technical College and Phetchaburi Vocational College are not universities, but both are member colleges of the Institute of Vocational Education: Central Region 5, which awards Bachelor of Technology (ทล.บ.) degrees taught on their campuses. Six such programmes are currently sited in Phetchaburi: electrical technology, mechanical technology and electronics technology at Phetchaburi Technical College, and hotel studies, digital business technology and marketing at Phetchaburi Vocational College. These are continuing (top-up) degrees for holders of the higher vocational diploma, taught in Thai. The institute itself is headquartered at 89 Moo 12, Lat Yai, Mueang Samut Songkhram — outside the province — so the degrees are conferred from there while the teaching happens here.

Expats researching Cha-am and Hua Hin still find listings for Webster University Thailand, the US university that ran an undergraduate campus at Sam Phraya in Cha-am from 1999. That campus officially closed on 31 December 2021, and the directory entries, review sites and address listings that survive it are stale. As things stand there is no American or otherwise English-medium university campus operating in Phetchaburi province, and the Praboromarajchanok Institute's Sirindhorn public-health colleges are sited in other provinces, not here. All four institutions above teach primarily in Thai; anyone weighing a local degree should confirm current English-language provision directly with the institution rather than assuming an English-taught track exists. The nearest concentration of English-medium universities is Bangkok, roughly two to two and a half hours north by road or rail.

Four degree-awarding institutions operate in the province, not two: Phetchaburi Rajabhat University in Mueang Phetchaburi, Silpakorn University's Phetchaburi Campus at Sam Phraya in Cha-am district, Prachomklao College of Nursing under the Praboromarajchanok Institute, and MCU's Phetchaburi Buddhist College at Wat Phra Rup. On top of those, six Bachelor of Technology programmes are taught at the province's two vocational colleges under the Institute of Vocational Education: Central Region 5.

6,860 in the first semester of academic year 2025 (B.E. 2568), per the MHESI enrolment dataset reported on 4 November 2025 — which placed PBRU 24th of the 35 Rajabhat universities that filed figures. Higher numbers circulate online; we have withdrawn the figure we previously published here in favour of the ministry's own.

A real campus. It sits on 621 rai of state land at Sam Phraya in Cha-am district, with a further 200 rai added in 2003, and runs three teaching faculties — Animal Sciences and Agricultural Technology, Management Science, and Information and Communication Technology — with its own library, administration division and digital technology office. Note the dates often conflated: cabinet approval came in September 1997, but teaching only began in May 2002.

Not at present, so far as we can verify. All four institutions teach primarily in Thai. Webster University Thailand's Cha-am campus, the province's one English-medium degree option, closed on 31 December 2021 even though listings for it persist online. Confirm current English-language provision directly with any institution before relying on it, and expect Bangkok — about two to two and a half hours away — to be the realistic option for an English-taught degree.

It does at the margins. The streets around Phetchaburi Rajabhat University carry the town's clearest student rental market — smaller units, shorter leases, and the cheapest laundromats, salons and cafes in town. The Silpakorn campus at Sam Phraya is rural and car-dependent, closer to Cha-am's beach rentals than to Phetchaburi town. For families and professionals our areas and where-to-live guides are the better starting point than campus proximity.