Mahidol University - History

History

The first Siamese medical school, the Rajapaethayalai (Thai: ราชแพทยาลัย), was founded under commissions of King Chulalongkorn in 1888 situated on the former Palace or today's Bangkok Noi campus. The medical school was merged with Chulalongkorn University organized by Vajiravudh's decree in 1917 as the Faculty of Medicine to Chulalongkorn University.(now Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital)

However, the government of General Phibun then separated the Faculty of Medicine (Siriraj Medical School), Departments of Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Science from Chulalongkorn University and re-organized them into the University of Medical Sciences (Thai: มหาวิทยาลัยแพทย์ศาสตร์). The university was officially founded on February 7, 1943 and experienced drastic growth since then. Many new schools and departments were establishes during this era. In 1959, the Medical Science Preparatory School (now Faculty of Science) was moved to Payathai area - thus beginning the Payathai campus. During the 1960s the university focused its development on the Payathai campus. In 1965, another medical school was established – the Faculty of Medicine of Ramathibodi Hospital at Payathai. In 1968, the university established another pharmacy and dentistry schools at new campus apart from those received from Chulalongkorn University. On February 21, 1969, King Bhumibol Adulyadej declared the name of the university to be changed to Mahidol University (MU) (Thai: มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล) in honor of his father Prince Mahidol of Songkla who was also revered as the Father of Modern Thai Medicine. The university bought a large suburban area known as Salaya in 1971 for its future developments. In the following years, the former faculties of Dentistry and Pharmacy were returned to Chulalongkorn University.

King Bhumibol expressed his will that MU should also expand to the Social Science fields, so the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities was founded in 1969. The construction of Salaya campus began in 1975 but was soon delayed due the political situation and financial shortage. On July 23, 1983, the Salaya campus was officially opened. All education for freshman-year students was transferred to Salaya. Later academic developments of the university tended to deviate from traditional Health Science area to facilitate academic demands of the country and later developments were centered on the Salaya campus. The first internship college in Thailand was founded in MU in 1986. In 1999, the Rajasuda College devoted solely to disabled persons was established. Adhasit Vejjajiva, father of former Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, had once been the president of MU from 1995 to 1999.

In 2002, MU expanded its campus to Kanchanaburi – to offer its students more learning opportunities with rural communities. The university is currently constructing the Amnaj Chareon Campus to be completed in 2009. Then it become the largest university in Asia.