Asian Institute of Technology

About

The Asian Institute of Technology, formerly known as the SEATO Graduate School of Engineering, was founded in 1959. It is an international organization for higher education situated 40 km north of Bangkok, Thailand. It specializes in engineering, advanced technologies, sustainable development, and management and planning. It aims to promote technological change and sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region, through higher education, research, and outreach.

Founded in 1959 as SEATO Graduate School of Engineering, it receives funding from organizations and governments around the world. In 1967, The Constituent Assembly of Thailand approved legislation for the Charter of the newly named Asian Institute of Technology in October. The Asian Institute of Technology Enabling Act was published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette in November the same year. AIT became independent of SEATO as an institution of higher learning empowered to grant degrees. On 21 October 2011, AIT's campus was inundated by two-meter-high floodwaters. Since then, it has resumed operations. AIT celebrated its 60th anniversary on 23–25 October 2019. Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the first royal alumna, presided over the celebrations on 24 October 2019. In November 2019, AIT inaugurated the Belt & Road Research Centre.

AIT has been governed by a board of governors since its beginning. Traditionally a high-ranking Thai citizen has been the chairman of its board of trustees. At present the chairman of the AIT Board of Trustees is Anat Arbhabirama. Ambassadors of 14 countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam – are members of the AIT Board of Trustees. The ambassador of Japan and the ambassador to the delegation of the European Union to Thailand have observer status on the AIT Board.

In the 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (THE Impact Rankings), AIT ranked globally:

15th for SDG#1 No Poverty 58th for SDG#17 Partnerships for the Goals 64th for SDG#14 Life Below Water 67th for SDG#2 Zero Hunger 80th for SDG#15 Life on Land 100 - 200th for SDG#6 Clean Water and Sanitation 100 - 200th for SDG#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities 100 - 200th for Overall Impact In the 2020 THE Impact Rankings, AIT ranked globally:

19th for SDG#1 No Poverty 86th for SDG#2 Zero Hunger 100 - 200th for SDG#6 Clean Water and Sanitation 100 - 200th for SDG#14 Life Below Water 100 - 200th for SDG#15 Life on Land 300 - 400th for Overall Impact In 2020 QS Global MBA Rankings, AIT Master of Business Administration (MBA) program ranked 14th in Asia and 1st in Thailand. It also ranked 7th in Asia for Diversity and 18th in the world for Return on Investment. In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020, AIT ranked 2nd in Thailand in Engineering and Technology, 151-200th in the world in Environmental Studies and in Architecture & Built Environment, and 201-250th in the world in Civil and Structural Engineering and in Agricultural and Forestry.

AIT operates as a self-contained international community at its campus in Pathumthani Province, some 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Bangkok, Thailand. Besides laboratories and academic buildings, the main campus includes housing, sports, and medical facilities, a conference center, and a library with over 230,000 volumes and 830 print and online periodicals. AIT was hosted by the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, before it moved to its present campus in November 1973. Currently, it is located in the Rangsit area next to Thammasat University (Rangsit Campus), about 65 kilometers from the Suvarnabhumi Airport. AIT has a remote campus called AIT Center in Vietnam. It was established in 1993 under the memorandum of understanding between the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training and the AIT. At that time AITCV was the first international institution in Vietnam and the first AIT campus outside Thailand.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.