Khon Kaen University is an internationally-recognized university in Asia. It is located in the Isan

Isan

Isan is the northeastern region of Thailand. It is located on the Khorat Plateau, bordered by the Mekong River to the north and east, by Cambodia to the southeast and the Prachinburi mountains south of Nakhon Ratchasima...

 region of Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. The university is a central hub of education in north-east Thailand.
In 1941, during the reign of the King Ananda Mahidol

Ananda Mahidol

Ananda Mahidol was the eighth monarch of Thailand under the House of Chakri. At the time he was recognized as king by the National Assembly, in March 1935, he was a nine-year-old boy living in Switzerland. He returned to Thailand in December 1945. Six months later, in June 1946, he was found shot...

 and during the time of Field Marshal Pibulsonggram as prime minister, they had a plan to improve continued education throughout Thailand. There were plans to open a university in the Ubon Ratchathani province

Ubon Ratchathani Province

-History:The area was part of the Khmer Empire. Before the late eighteenth century, this area evidently was outside Siamese or Thai Ayutthaya Kingdom....

, but the Second World War had broken out.