Payap’s Five Core Principles:

• Transformation Toward Authentic Peace
• Build Trust Through Truth
• Service Through Vocation
• Delight in Diversity and Global Awareness
• Faithful Stewardship (Oversight)

Students of Payap University must learn self-development, acquire knowledge, exhibit wisdom, and think creatively.

They are expected to develop the capacity for excellence, along with a strong sense of social responsibility towards others and society in general.

Boonnak (Ceylon Iron Wood) is among the most beautiful trees in the world.

• The color of Boonnak flowers is pure white, which represents virtue and purity.
• Boonnak flowers have a pleasant, lingering fragrance, which represents refinement, dignity, and a service-minded reputation.
• Boonnak flowers resemble a parasol, which protects from the elements and impurities.
• Boonnak trunks can be used as medicine, which represents the capacity to provide aid and assistance to those who are in need
• Boonnak is very hard to cultivate, hence, it requires good care; this represents the challenge of educating society’s youth to reach their full potential.

Mae Khao campus:

Located east of the city, on the “middle” ring road

Mae Khao is the larger campus and includes the Luce Chapel, Center for Arts and Culture, the Research and Development Institute, and the University Central Library

Kaew Nawarat campus:

Located on the Kaeonawarat Road across from McCormick Hospital.

Includes the McGilvary College of Divinity, the McCormick Faculty of Nursing, and the College of Music.

Payap University has a long and rich history beginning in 1888 with the founding of the Thailand Theological Seminary.

That seminary has now been integrated into Payap University as the McGilvary College of Divinity, one of eleven academic divisions comprising the university.

Initially, seminary students were accepted after completing elementary school. High school graduation gradually became the pre-requisite for a seven-year bachelor of divinity (BD) course that was formally initiated in 1960.

The second predecessor of Payap University was the McCormick Hospital School of Nursing, established in 1923. After first accepting students with minimal educational qualifications, in 1961 the School of Nursing made high school graduation a per-requisite for entrance.

Degrees awarded by these institutions, however, were not recognized as college degrees by the Royal Thai Government.

In 1975, Payap engaged Metropolitan Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd., of Bangkok, a leading architectural and engineering firm, to prepare a ten-year master plan for campus development.

The implementation of this plan began with the dedication of the first five buildings on the Mae Khao campus in 1982. Since then, 16 major buildings have been constructed at the Mae Khao campus.

Payap also continues to offer classes on the Kaew Nawarat site where the College of Divinity, the faculty of nursing, the music department, the Christian Communications Institute, and the university archives are located.

Payap’s achievements were recognized by the Royal Thai Government in 1984 when it became the first fully accredited private university in Thailand.

Since then the university has continued to progress, expanding facilities to accommodate the steady growth in the student body, investing in the continuing education and training of the faculty through university support of graduate education in the US and in other countries, and adding a wide range of international programs to attract students from across Southeast Asia and from other areas of the world.

In Chiang Mai the International College at Payap opened in 2003 when it started its Bachelor’s Degree program. It now boasts a full range of undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs.

These programs have been approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of the United States of America to offer degree programs to eligible American veterans. American veterans can use their Post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits to study abroad in Thailand.

Throughout its history Payap University has pioneered the teaching of new fields at the university level in northern Thailand, such as music, business-related fields, law, and Peacebuilding (PhD).

Payap continues to build on the distinctive characteristics of its American educational heritage. In recent years the university has initiated an International MBA program (taught in English, drawing on established American business school models) and has established a new International College: the first English-language undergraduate program in Northern Thailand.

The university launched the new Faculty of Pharmacy in 2006, a highly popular program taught in Thai, but modeled after American Pharmaceutical education. Payap received financial assistance from the US government’s USAID/ASHA program to procure vital laboratory equipment for the Pharmacy program.

Further improvements to the infrastructure for teaching and learning have been made, including renovation of the campus to enhance accessibility to the disabled, and a major IT upgrade project. Both of these projects were partially funded by grants from USAID/ASHA. The university is also working to increase the number of Payap students who participate in exchange programs with US academic institutions.