ABSTRACT
The Thai version of sustainable development (SD), Sufficient Economy Philosophy (SEP) has been emphasized as an imperative guideline in the Thai national development plans. The philosophy, bestowed by the late King Rama IX, not only gives importance to the balanced state of people, society, economy and environment but also the adoption of the “middle path” strategy to steer the country through a series of crises to a sustainable and quality presence in the world community. Higher education institutions have played a significant role in implementing these principles into practices. This paper examines practices of Chulalongkorn University (CU), the leading national university, since it is one of the pioneers in launching SEP policy and has set its goal to become a “Sustainable University”. CU has supported several initiatives in relation to the three dimensions of SD: namely, environmental, social and economic. The university holds a belief that sustainability should be promoted not only within its main campus but also in its surrounding communities in Bangkok and other provinces in which CU has development projects and university extension programs.
