— AUA Pattaya is situated in the Pattaya Bazaar shopping mall, at the Dolphin roundabout, north Pattaya. Close to the Amari and Dusit Resorts, the City Hall and a few minutes walk from the beach. The school is unusual, for AUA, in that it is not located within an educational establishment. It is free standing and draws students, mainly, from the local hotel and leisure sectors. The school’s local partner is Burapha University [which is in Bang Saen, some 40 kilometers north. AUA Bang Saen is situated inside this university].

The school has a resident manager, five full time and one part time English teacher and two part time Thai teachers. There are also three Thai support staff. In addition the school utilizes staff at Burapha University for such areas as marketing and accounting. Classes are daily, except Friday and Saturday, and run from 11.30 am through to 9pm. English lessons are mainly from 5pm onwards. Students either study every day – Monday to Thursday – or two days per week: Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. The school follows the same 6 week terms as Rajadamri school in Bangkok [seven each year]. The Sunday term has students studying 3 hours for 10 weeks.

In term 1 2004 the school had just over 300 students. Most classes are at the lower level of AUA’s curriculum [intro A to level 4]; though some students do continue through to graduation at level 15. The school has attracted over 600 new students each year – over the last 5 years - mainly by word-of-mouth recommendation from friends and family. Our motto is “have fun while you learn”.

Pattaya is Thailand’s largest beach resort with thousands of hotel rooms, restaurants and bars. It has a large resident foreign community. Unfortunately, as it is a tourist resort, almost everything is more expensive than even in Bangkok. Almost without exception the quality of restaurants is low. On the positive side Pattaya enjoys fabulous weather and has great beaches [the best ones being slightly out of town away from the main tourist haunts; where you can also find cheaper and much better restaurants]. It also offers numerous activities from theme parks to spectacular temples. It is less than 2 hours from central Bangkok [B90 single bus fare]. General shopping is very limited and a day trip to Bangkok – where prices are cheaper – is the best solution.