Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University is a public research institution based in Bangkok with around 40,000 students. The institution was founded in 1917. That year, King Vajiravudh decided that the former Civil Service College was ready to become a university, naming Chulalongkorn in memorial to his father, the king regarded as having laid the foundations of modern education in Thailand. King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) had the aim of enabling the country to resist the tide of colonialism, one element of this being to improve the educational system of Siam (as the country was then known). In 1961, the university established the graduate school, followed by a number of research centres and institutes. The university’s strategy for the period between 2012 and 2016 focuses on different aspects of development and improvement, with the aim of raising the institution to a level of excellence that will enable it to become a “World Class National University”.  The institution's vision is to be “Thailand’s source of knowledge and reference, a guiding light of wisdom for sustainable development”. The university has the motto of “Pillar of the Kingdom”. CU’s emblem is the Phra Kieo, a coronet worn by princes and princesses. When the institution was named after King Chulalongkorn, the Phra Kieo became the institution’s emblem. The coronet housed in the CU Memorial Hall is a replica made in 1976, by royal permission, of an original found in the royal Grand Palace. Other attractions on campus include the Museum of the Human Body, the Museum of Thai Classical Music and the Snail Museum of Thailand, part of the institution’s Natural History Museum.