Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Wang Klai Kangwon Campus.

What you actually get here

Bachelor's degrees across five faculty presences, taught on site, plus two master's programmes taught at weekends by RMUTR's College of Innovation Management. This is the province's fullest university presence by a wide margin.

Part of: Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin (headquartered at Salaya, Phutthamonthon, Nakhon Pathom)

Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Wang Klai Kangwon Campus at a glance

The Wang Klai Kangwon Campus was founded on 30 May 1990 in Hua Hin, taking its name from the nearby Wang Klai Kangwon Palace, and predates the university that now runs it. Its origin is a disaster-recovery programme: after Typhoon Gay struck Chumphon, Ranong and Prachuap Khiri Khan in 1989, government departments were asked to put projects into a restoration plan for the three provinces, and the then Rajamangala Institute of Technology proposed a new campus at Hua Hin. The Ministry of Education's founding announcement gives two further reasons -- to honour the Princess Mother on her 90th birthday, and to supply skilled people for the government's Southern Seaboard development. The name was one King Rama IX approved. Teaching began on 12 August 1990 with two higher vocational programmes, Tourism and Hotel, thirty students each.

It began as the 30th campus of the Rajamangala Institute of Technology; the Rajamangala University of Technology Act B.E. 2548 was signed on 8 January 2005, published in the Royal Gazette on 18 January 2005 and took effect on 19 January 2005, reorganising the old institute's campuses into nine separate universities, of which Rattanakosin is one.

RMUTR describes itself as four sites, and Wang Klai Kangwon is the only one of the four the university designates a campus (witthayakhet). The other three are the Salaya central area in Nakhon Pathom, the Bophit Phimuk Chakkrawat area in Bangkok, and Poh-Chang College. That makes Hua Hin the single place outside the Bangkok-Nakhon Pathom core where RMUTR runs a full campus, and it is the strongest higher-education anchor anywhere in Prachuap Khiri Khan.

It is not one address but four, and the campus's own history page sets them out. Zone 1 is the original site inside the Klai Kangwon Palace grounds, on land the campus was permitted to use at Wang Klai Kangwon School. Zone 2 is Ban Rajamangala Chom Khluen, a little over 8 rai on the beach near Khao Takiab, about 12 km south of the palace, run as a working hotel where hotel and tourism students do their practical training -- rooms, restaurant, pool, hot and cold kitchens. Zone 3 is a little over 14 rai at Khao Phithak, off Phetkasem into Soi Hua Hin 88, used for staff housing and small seminars. Zone 4, at Suan Son opposite Suan Son Pradipat and about 13 km south of the palace, is 235 rai and is the campus's main administrative and teaching area; the land came to it from the Army's 16th Infantry Division via the Treasury Department in two tranches, of 155 rai and 80 rai. In 2023 all remaining teaching was consolidated out of Zone 3 into Zone 4.

The teaching is broader than the engineering reputation suggests. The campus opened in 1990 with two higher vocational programmes, Tourism and Hotel, and hotel and tourism remain central: RMUTR's Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Industry is seated here, not at the Bangkok-Nakhon Pathom core, and the campus runs a 72-room training hotel building alongside the Zone 2 beachfront hotel. Sitting beside it are the Faculty of Industry and Technology and the Wang Klai Kangwon areas of the Faculties of Business Administration, Engineering and Liberal Arts. RMUTR's College of Innovation Management also teaches two master's programmes here at weekends -- an MBA and a Master of Public Administration -- which makes Hua Hin the only place in Prachuap Khiri Khan where postgraduate study is available on site.

RMUTR's stated identity across all sites is the bandit nak patibat -- the hands-on, practice-first graduate, aimed at students continuing from vocational certificates rather than the general academic track. That matters for a resident weighing local hiring: the graduates coming out of here are trained for the workshop, the site office and the hotel floor. For a resident weighing an address, it also explains where the student and staff population sits -- Nong Kae, Khao Takiab and the Suan Son stretch of Phetkasem, well south of central Hua Hin, rather than the town centre.

Notable facts

• Founded 30 May 1990 as the 30th campus of the Rajamangala Institute of Technology, fifteen years before the university that now runs it existed, under the recovery plan drawn up after Typhoon Gay hit the province in 1989.
• The only one of RMUTR's four sites that the university itself calls a campus -- the other three are the Salaya central area, the Bophit Phimuk Chakkrawat area and Poh-Chang College.
• Four separate zones spread over roughly 20 km of coast, of which Zone 4 at Suan Son is 235 rai and carries the campus office and most teaching. That single zone is more than twice the size of any other higher-education site in the province.
• The only place in Prachuap Khiri Khan where a master's degree can be taken on site: RMUTR's College of Innovation Management runs an MBA and a Master of Public Administration here at weekends.
• RMUTR's Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Industry is seated at this campus rather than at the university's Bangkok-Nakhon Pathom core, and students train in two real hotels the campus operates.
• Address: Phetkasem Road (km 242), Tambon Nong Kae, Hua Hin 77110; telephone 032-618-500.
• Not to be confused with Wang Klai Kangwon Vocational College, a separate institution a short distance away that also takes its name from the palace -- see that entry.