History

The Mission Faculty of Nursing at Asia-Pacific International University began as the Mission Hospital Nursing School. It was founded by Dr. Raff F. Waddale and his wife, Seventh-Day Adventist missionaries who were authorized to establish a Mission hospital in Thailand in 1937. The Mission Hospital Nursing School opened in 1947 to teach a 3-year nursing program. Study programs expanded in 1955 with the addition of a 6-month course in Midwifery. In 1958, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit presided over the opening ceremony of a new three-storey residence and classroom building.

In 1986, the Mission Hospital Nursing School received approval from the Ministry of University Affairs to become an established higher education institution under the name “Mission College.” The Faculty of Nursing was the first faculty of the institution. Mission College established a campus in Muak Lek, Saraburi, Thailand in 1990, and created the Faculty of Business Administration soon after the opening of the new campus.

In 1997, Southeast Asia Union College (SAUC), a tertiary institution affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist group in Singapore, merged with Mission College with the intention to combine the quality international programs of SAUC and retain and develop the Thai-medium programs operated by Mission College to create a bilingual institution. The vision was to build a Living & Leaning Center, where schools, living quarters, and the church would be in the same area.

The Mission College name was officially changed on June 30, 2009 to “Asia-Pacific International University”, classified under Group B (Institute focusing on teaching undergraduates). Currently, the Mission Faculty of Nursing is one of the six faculties of Asia-Pacific International University.