The short version
Ubon Ratchathani is a provincial and border capital, not an established expat centre, and its school field reflects that. There are 5 realistic English-medium options, and they are segmented by age far more sharply than by quality or price. Two of them — Satit RTU International School and Begins International School — are early years settings that stop at around age five or six. One, the Narinukun International Programme, does not start until Year 7. That leaves UAIMS as the only international school in the province able to educate a child from preschool to eighteen, and Assumption College Ubonratchathani as the main Thai-school alternative for primary and secondary ages.
The practical consequence is worth stating bluntly, because most guides to this city do not: a family arriving in Ubon Ratchathani with a seven-year-old and a requirement for an international curriculum has exactly one school to choose from. That is not a criticism of any school here — it is the arithmetic of a small field, and knowing it before you move is worth more than any ranking. Below: every option and where it stops, religious character and accreditation side by side, where to live for each, and the things we could not verify. For budgeting pair this with the Ubon Ratchathani cost-of-living guide, and use the Ubon Ratchathani hub to match a neighbourhood to your school.
Where each school stops
The single most decision-relevant table on this page, and the reason it sits above curriculum and cost. Ubon Ratchathani's schools end at four different points, so most families here will change school at least once — and in a field this small, the onward option may not exist.
| School | Range | Ends at | Leaving qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Satit RTU International School | Early years only | ~ age 6 | None — no leaving qualification |
| Begins International School | Early years only | Age 5 (Early Year 3 / K2) | None — no leaving qualification |
| Ubon Adventist International Mission School | Preschool → Grade 12 | Age 18 | American high school pathway |
| Assumption College Ubonratchathani | Primary and secondary | Secondary (band not published) | Thai national qualification |
| Narinukun International Programme | Year 7 → Year 12 | Age 18 | OBEC core integrated with the British Curriculum |
Read the middle three rows together. Between the end of the early years settings at five or six and the start of NIP at Year 7 sits the whole of primary and the beginning of secondary — and across that entire span the province offers one international school and one Thai private school. If your child is in or approaching that band, settle the school question before the housing question.
The schools relocating families choose
All 5 English-medium options serving Ubon Ratchathani city, with each one's type stated plainly. This is a starting point, not a ranking — the right fit depends on age first, then curriculum, then budget.
| School | Type | Area | Curriculum | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubon Adventist International Mission School (UAIMS) | International school | 148 Phalorangrit Road, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani | American curriculum, Preschool through Grade 12, Seventh-day Adventist Christian foundation | The province's first international school, opened 2011, and still the only one covering the whole span from preschool to Grade 12. Its own director's welcome for the 2025–26 year describes a rigorous American curriculum from Preschool through Grade 12. If you want an international education in Ubon Ratchathani for a child of school age, this is the option — which makes its religious character a decision every family here has to engage with rather than a footnote. |
| Assumption College Ubonratchathani (ACU) | Thai private school (not international) | 500 Chayangkun Road, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani | Thai national curriculum with English-medium programme streams (EBP, IEP, SSP named in its own navigation); Catholic, Saint Gabriel Foundation of Thailand | The realistic alternative to UAIMS for a primary or secondary-age child, at Thai private-school cost rather than international-school cost. Well established, with Thai, English and Chinese editions of its site. The honest limit: the content behind all three English programme pages is unreadable on the school's own site, so the streams' curricula, year groups and staffing have to be established by phone. |
| Narinukun International Programme (NIP) | State school programme | Narinukun School, 102 Changsanit Road, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani | Thai OBEC core curriculum integrated with the British Curriculum, English-medium, Year 7–12 | An English-medium programme inside a state secondary school specialising in foreign languages, and one of fourteen schools nationwide picked for Thailand's government Education Hub project. First Year 7 cohort in 2010. It runs at government-school fee levels, far below a private school — but it starts at Year 7 and cannot take a younger child. |
| Satit RTU International School | Early years only | Ratchathani University campus, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani | Cambridge Early Years Centre programme, English-medium, approximately birth to age 6 | The demonstration school of Ratchathani University, which BAANLYY already profiles in its universities directory. Publishes a three-teacher classroom model — a native English speaker, a foreign teacher and a Thai teacher. Early years only, and its own website did not render when we fetched it, so everything we hold on it is directory-sourced. |
| Begins International School | Early years only | 119 Soi Chayangkul 21, Chayangkul Road, Nai Mueang, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani | British Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), trilingual Thai / English / Chinese, ages 2–5 | The best-documented school in the province: readable bilingual site, current calendar, and dated date-of-birth admission bands. Its trilingual Thai–English–Chinese mission is not matched anywhere else in Ubon Ratchathani. Three year groups only, ending at the Kindergarten 2 equivalent. |
Ubon Adventist International Mission School (UAIMS)Assumption College Ubonratchathani (ACU)Narinukun International Programme (NIP)Satit RTU International SchoolBegins International School
Religious character and accreditation, side by side
Two things families ask about that most guides bury. Both are stated here as facts about what each school publishes, not as judgements.
| School | Religious character | Accreditation | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubon Adventist International Mission School | Seventh-day Adventist Christian | None published beyond its own statements | Private international |
| Assumption College Ubonratchathani | Catholic (Saint Gabriel Foundation of Thailand) | None published — Thai MoE school | Thai private |
| Narinukun International Programme | None — state school | Government Education Hub project school | State |
| Satit RTU International School | None published | None published | Private early years |
| Begins International School | None published | None published | Private early years |
Two readings matter. First, both private schools running past age six carry a religious character — UAIMS is Seventh-day Adventist and ACU is Catholic — so a family wanting secular private schooling for a school-age child will not find it in this province. The only secular route is the state sector, and only from Year 7. Second, no school in Ubon Ratchathani publishes an international accreditation from a body such as CIS, WASC or NEASC. For the two early years settings that is entirely normal. For a school running to Grade 12 it means there is no independent inspection report to read, and the right response is to visit rather than to assume the worst or the best.
What schooling here actually costs
We have removed the fee table that used to sit on this page, and we are not replacing it with a new one. The figures it carried were UAIMS's last-published schedule for the 2020–21 academic year — five years stale, published by the school's own admission with a roughly 3% annual escalator, on a fee page that has since been under revision. Presenting numbers of that age as a “budgeting benchmark” invited families to plan against a figure that no longer existed. No directory figure we found for any Ubon Ratchathani school could be matched to a current school source either.
What we can honestly give you is the shape of the market, which does not go stale. An international school is the most expensive tier here by a wide margin. A Thai private school such as ACU sits well below it, with a wide spread across its own programme streams. A state programme such as NIP runs at government-school levels, which is lower again by an order of magnitude. Early years settings are priced independently of all three. Ask each school for its current schedule, ask whether the quoted figure is tuition alone or includes registration, general education, utilities, lunch and insurance line items, and ask what the annual escalator is — that last question is the one that changes a five-year budget.
One more thing that costs families more than fees do: cost is not the same as access. Thai schools, including private ones and state English-programme streams, commonly admit by entrance assessment on a fixed annual timetable, often in the first months of the calendar year. A low fee level is no help if the intake window has closed. Ask about the admissions calendar and any assessment at the same time as you ask about the money.
Where to live for Ubon Ratchathani's schools
Ubon Ratchathani has no urban rail of any kind — no BTS, no MRT, no monorail, and no scheme under construction. Every school run in this city is a drive, a motorbike or a songthaew, so proximity is the whole game. The good news is that all 5 schools sit inside the central Mueang district, so one broad rental area serves the entire field.
| Area | Schools | Why families live there |
|---|---|---|
| Phalorangrit Road, central Mueang | UAIMS | The only address that matters if you need a full K–12 international pathway. Central, and within reach of the Sunee Tower and Thung Si Mueang rental corridor. |
| Chayangkun Road, central Mueang | ACU (no. 500) and Begins (Soi Chayangkul 21) | One artery carrying two schools at different stages — useful if you expect to move a child on from an early years setting without changing neighbourhood. |
| Changsanit Road, central Mueang | Narinukun International Programme | A state school campus. Families here are usually already local, or are choosing NIP specifically for its government fee level rather than relocating around it. |
| Ratchathani University campus, Mueang | Satit RTU International School | Directory listings place the campus opposite Central Plaza Ubon Ratchathani. Convenient for families already connected to RTU. |
Because no school here publishes a bus network, ask each one directly what transport it can arrange before you sign a lease. See where to live in Ubon Ratchathani and getting around.
Which one fits?
Under five? Begins and Satit RTU are your English-medium choices. Begins publishes dated age bands, a readable site and a trilingual Thai–English–Chinese mission; Satit RTU offers a three-teacher classroom model and a university affiliation but we could not read its own site. Choose on visit and on which year groups are actually staffed this term, and choose with the age-six question already answered.
Five to eleven? UAIMS if you want an international curriculum — there is no second option, so the real decision is whether a Seventh-day Adventist school works for your family. ACU if a Thai private Catholic school with English-medium streams is acceptable and cost matters. If neither works, this is the age band where families conclude that Ubon Ratchathani is not the right posting, and it is better to reach that conclusion before the move than after it.
Twelve and over? All three of UAIMS, ACU and NIP are live. NIP is the value option by a wide margin and the only secular one, but it is a state programme — expect a Thai school environment with English-medium teaching rather than an international school. UAIMS is the only route to an American high school pathway. ACU sits between them on both cost and character.
Confirm these before you enrol
- Is your child's year group actually running this term? In a field this small, an advertised year group and a staffed class with other children in it are not the same thing. Ask for the headcount in the specific year your child would join.
- Where does this school stop, in the school's own words? Get the age ceiling from the admissions office, not from a directory — directory records for this province disagree with the schools themselves.
- What is the current fee schedule, and what is the annual escalator? Ask what is included beyond tuition. Do not plan against any figure you found online, including one you found here in the past.
- What is the admissions calendar, and is there an entrance assessment? The Thai-sector options admit on a fixed timetable. This closes more doors than price does.
- What transport exists? No school in Ubon Ratchathani publishes a bus network, and there is no rail. Establish the school run before you choose a neighbourhood.
- Does the school have a working website and a phone that answers? Two of the five schools here have sites we could not read. That is not proof of a problem, but it means you cannot do your homework remotely and should plan a visit.
What we could not verify
We would rather publish a shorter honest page than a padded one. These are the gaps in what we hold on Ubon Ratchathani's schools, stated so you know where to push:
- Satit RTU's own website did not render. The domain resolves but returned no readable content, so everything we hold on that school is directory-sourced, including its age range and its claim to be Thailand's first Cambridge international kindergarten — a superlative that appears in identical wording across directories, which usually indicates one upstream source rather than independent corroboration.
- ACU's three English programme pages all return the same site shell. We can confirm the streams exist by name and nothing about their content, year groups or staffing. The account that its bilingual programme dates from 1999 and uses native speakers for English, maths and science comes from a regional teaching guide, not the school.
- Boarding at ACU is reported but unconfirmed, and whether any dormitory admits foreign students is unknown. It would be the only residential provision in the province, so it is worth a direct question rather than an assumption.
- UAIMS's upper limit has been reported two ways. A third-party school listing describes it as Pre-K to Grade 10, while the school director's own welcome letter for the 2025–26 year states Preschool through Grade 12. We follow the school, and flag the discrepancy because a family with a fifteen-year-old needs to settle it by phone.
- No founding year is asserted for Begins or ACU. Begins's site carries a 2025–2026 copyright and no founding claim; ACU's social handle contains what looks like a Buddhist-era year, but inferring a founding date from a username is not sourcing.
- No school here publishes a roll size or class size we could verify, so cohort scale across the province is unknown.
Schools you may see listed that are not what they appear
Directory sites and AI-generated school listicles handle small Thai provinces badly, and Ubon Ratchathani is small enough to show it. The specific failure here is miscategorisation rather than invention: several directories file Assumption College Ubonratchathani and two early years settings under “international schools in Ubon Ratchathani” without distinguishing a Thai national-curriculum school or a nursery from a full international school. A family reading those lists would reasonably conclude the province has four or five international schools. It has one.
The test that works, wherever you are looking: does the school have its own domain, a findable street address, and a phone that answers? Then ask the two questions a directory listing cannot answer — what age does it run to, and what qualification does a child leave with? If a listing cannot tell you both, it is not describing a school you can plan around.
Looking for university options instead?
This guide covers schooling to age 18. For higher education, see our directory of Ubon Ratchathani's universities — Ubon Ratchathani University (UBU), Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University (UBRU) and the private Ratchathani University (RTU), whose campus also hosts Satit RTU International School.
All Ubon Ratchathani universitiesUbon Ratchathani University (UBU)UBRURatchathani University (RTU)
Ubon Ratchathani school questions
How many international schools are there in Ubon Ratchathani?
One, if 'international school' means a school teaching a foreign curriculum across the full age range: Ubon Adventist International Mission School, which runs Preschool through Grade 12. Two more schools market themselves as international but are early years settings that stop at around age five or six — Satit RTU International School and Begins International School. Beyond those, Assumption College Ubonratchathani is a Thai private Catholic school with English-medium streams, and the Narinukun International Programme is an English-medium programme inside a state secondary school. Five options in total, and only one of them can educate a child from preschool to eighteen.
What is the best school in Ubon Ratchathani for an expat family?
It depends almost entirely on your child's age, because this province's options are segmented by age more sharply than by quality. Under five, Begins International School and Satit RTU International School are the English-medium choices. Five to eleven, UAIMS is the only international option and Assumption College Ubonratchathani is the main Thai-school alternative. Twelve and over, UAIMS, ACU and the Narinukun International Programme are all live. There is no school in Ubon Ratchathani that is right for every family, and any guide that names one without asking your child's age is not helping you.
What happens when my child finishes an early years school in Ubon Ratchathani?
You change school, and the choice narrows sharply. Both of the province's early years settings stop at around age five or six, and at that point there is exactly one international school able to take your child — UAIMS, which is a Seventh-day Adventist school. If that is not the right fit, the realistic alternatives are a Thai private school such as ACU, a Thai state school, or relocating to a city with a deeper field. Plan the second school before you commit to the first.
Is there a secular school option in Ubon Ratchathani past age six?
Only in the state sector, and only from Year 7. Both private schools that run past age six carry a religious character — UAIMS is Seventh-day Adventist and ACU is Catholic — so the only non-religious route for a school-age child is a Thai state school, including the Narinukun International Programme from Year 7. This is not unusual for provincial Thailand, but families who assume a secular private option exists should know that in Ubon Ratchathani it does not.
How much do schools in Ubon Ratchathani cost?
We deliberately do not publish per-school fee figures. Fees change every year, and in this province the published figures are demonstrably unreliable — the last fee schedule UAIMS put online was for the 2020–21 academic year, its current fee page has been under revision, and no directory figure we found for an Ubon Ratchathani school could be matched to a current school source. Any number we printed would be stale before you read it. What we can tell you is the shape: an international school is the most expensive tier by a wide margin, a Thai private school such as ACU sits far below it, and a state programme such as NIP runs at government-school levels. Request the current schedule from each school directly.
Is there a British curriculum school in Ubon Ratchathani?
Not a full one. The Narinukun International Programme integrates the British Curriculum with Thailand's OBEC core for Year 7 to Year 12, and Begins International School follows the British Early Years Foundation Stage for ages two to five. Between those two — the whole of primary and the first years of secondary — there is no British-curriculum provision in the province. A family wanting continuous British schooling would be looking at Khon Kaen, Udon Thani or further afield.
Does any school in Ubon Ratchathani have boarding?
Dormitory facilities are reported at Assumption College Ubonratchathani, which would make it the only residential provision in the province, but we could not confirm this from the school's own site and could not establish whether any dormitory admits foreign students. Treat it as unconfirmed. No other school in Ubon Ratchathani publishes boarding of any kind.
This guide is general information for relocation planning, not admissions or financial advice. School fees, curricula, age ranges, campus locations and admissions rules change — confirm current details directly with each school.
International schools near Ubon Ratchathani
International schools in and around Ubon Ratchathani, ordered by distance from the city centre and sourced live from Google Maps. Ratings and review counts update automatically — tap any name for directions, hours and contact details.
Distances are straight-line from the city centre, for rough comparison only. Listings are provided by Google and are not endorsements. BAANLYY does not manage these businesses.
Sources & References
- Ministry of Education, Thailand
- Ubon Adventist International Mission School (UAIMS) — official site
- Assumption College Ubonratchathani — official site (English edition)
- Begins International School — official site (English edition)
- Begins International School — BIS Age Guidelines 2025–2026
- Narinukun International Programme (NIP) — official programme site
- Satit RTU International School — international schools directory record
- Ajarn.com — Ubon Ratchathani region guide (secondary source for ACU's bilingual programme)
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.
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