Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University.

Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University at a glance

Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University dates its own history to 26 May 1915, when lower-level teacher training was founded at the Ubon Ratchathani monthon model school, Benchama Maharat -- on the site of the old provincial hall in the city centre. The first intake was 25 students, 15 on scholarships and 10 self-funded. A teacher-training school proper (rongrian fuk hat khru mun) followed in 1916, an agricultural teacher-training school at Ban Kut Peng in Warin Chamrap in 1923, and a women's teacher-training school inside Narinukun School in 1936.

The men's teacher-training school was constituted on 1 June 1946, the institution was raised to Ubon Ratchathani Teachers College in 1958, and the Teachers College Act of 1975 gave it degree-awarding status for the Bachelor of Education. The name Rajabhat was royally granted to the country's teachers colleges on 14 February 1992, and the royal seal followed on 6 March 1995 -- but the legal change to university status came only with the Rajabhat University Act, promulgated 14 June 2004 and effective the day after its publication in the Royal Gazette. The two dates are often conflated; the name grant and the legal elevation are twelve years apart.

The campus is compact and central, at 2 Ratchathani Road in Nai Mueang subdistrict -- an unusual thing in Thailand, where most large campuses have moved to the ring road. That makes UBRU the practical choice for anyone who wants to live in walking or short-songthaew distance of the city centre rather than out in Warin Chamrap.

Notable facts

• Traces its roots to 26 May 1915 at the Benchama Maharat model school -- over a century of teacher training in Ubon Ratchathani.
• Raised to Ubon Ratchathani Teachers College in 1958; degree-awarding from the Teachers College Act of 1975.
• Royally granted the name Rajabhat on 14 February 1992; legally became a university under the Rajabhat University Act promulgated 14 June 2004.
• By its own account the first Rajabhat institute in the country to open a master's programme, in educational administration, in 1997.
• In 1956 it ran the Thailand-UNESCO Rural Teachers Education Project (TURTEP), which the university describes as the first rural teacher-training project of its kind.