National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA)

National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA; Thai: สถาบันบัณฑิตพัฒนบริหารศาสตร์) is a public graduate university in Thailand under the Commission on Higher Education, the Ministry of Education.

NIDA has 10 graduate schools aimed to serve economics and social development. One of the founding school, NIDA Business School, was the first graduate school in Thailand that offers an MBA program in Thailand. NIDA Business School received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

NIDA was founded on April 1, 1966, with initial assistance from the Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation, the Ford Foundation, and the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA).

At the beginning, NIDA was an autonomous institute affiliated with Thammasat University which ran its own activities and managed its own budget. Later on, a merging of the School of Public Administration from Thammasat University, part of the training work from the National Economic and Social Development Board, and part of the training and teaching work from the National Statistical Office, became a full university as Thailand’s leading educational institution concentrating exclusively on graduate studies in fields related to national development.