The Concept of IIS-RU: Diversity Dear Students, welcome to The Institute of International Studies (IIS-RU), Ramkhamhaeng University (RU). IIS-RU was initiated by President Rangsan Saengsook 8 years ago. The first program was M.B.A. with an enrolment of 52 students of which 1 was an international student.

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When I was appointed by RU to be a director in 2000, the first question I asked myself was “What am I going to do at IIS-RU?” I am different from the former director. RU people expected that the director running an academic institute with an M.B.A. program should be a person coming from the area of business administration. My field of expertise, however, is environmental biology. Of course, I wanted to make a difference, I still do want to make a difference as I had done when I was a vice president, the dean of the Faculty of Science, and an acting president at RU.

Three things I always keep in mind about running an educational institute. In order to be successful, we should have the best professors we can afford, the best accredited curricula, and the best reasonable tuition fees. Above all, IIS-RU-RU still keeps the philosophy of educational opportunity.

One concept I applied from my knowledge of biology is diversity. We must have diversity of professors, diversity of programs, and diversity of students. Now, we have international students of more than 35 nationalities from around the world. The professors are also from different parts of the USA, Europe, and Asia.

Presently, we have 15 programs of which 3 are B.B.A., M.B.A. and Graduate Diploma in Teaching Profession that are taught in Chinese by distinguished professors from Peking University, Fudan University, and Yunnan University. 12 programs are taught in English by professors from well-known universities in USA and Europe. Out of these 12 programs, 4 are doctoral programs in Business Administration, Political Science, Educational Administration, and Law.

Besides a Graduate Diploma in Teaching Profession, four Master degree programs are in Business Administration, Political Science, Mass Communication, and Educational Administration. Three are undergraduate programs in Business Administration, Mass Communication Technology, and English. Furthermore, IIS-RU will offer a M.A. in English Language program from 6/2008.

“Is IIS-RU successful?” There are many variables involved. Three of them are the success of our graduates, the growing number of enrolment, and the popularity of IIS-RU-RU. Considering these three indicators, we are successful in turning out productive people, which will eventually lead to the significant development of Thailand. I am not saying we are the best, but I can say that we are second to none.

Welcome all new students. You made the right decision, you came to the right place. I wish you success both in education and in future career.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Piboon Puriveth
Director, Institute of International Studies
Ramkhamhaeng University