Thaksin University can trace its roots to the first institution of higher education in Southern Thailand, a teacher training college opened in 1954.
It has been through a range of iterations including Srinakharinwirot University branch campus before emerging as a separate public university under its current name in 1996.
Its campuses are now divided between Songkhla and Phatthalung, a two hour drive to the north.
There are two campuses in Songkhla. The main 56-acre campus hosts the faculties of humanities and social sciences, education, fine arts, economics and business administration, law and the graduate school as well as the international college. The 9.5-acre site on Koh Yo Island is home to the Institute of South Thai Studies, created in 1978 to focus on the arts and culture of the region, together with its Music Complex and Folklore Museum.
The main Phatthalung campus, opened in 1989, occupies 1400 acres and is home to faculties of agriculture and bioscience, law, nursing, engineering, technology and community development, and health and sports science. A second 600-acre site accommodates the College of Community Wisdom.
The International College continues to operate a classical doctorate based exclusively on research, with no coursework element. From 2023 it has offered a doctorate in sustainable development.
Its international partnerships reflect its regional location with four Malaysian partners, five from China, two each from Japan, Taiwan and the Phillippines but others further afield in France, Brazil and Australia.
