Chiang Mai University (CMU) organises dedicated outreach educational activities focused on the SDGs for the wider community: alumni, local residents, and displaced people and refugees. These activities from part of CMU’s Education for the SDGs and support Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) and Sustainable Development Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
Target group: Alumni
Learning does not end at graduation. CMU offers alumni courses and workshops that keep their skills up to date and help them act on sustainability at work and at home, in line with SDG target 4.3 (access to tertiary education and lifelong learning) and target 4.4 (skills for decent work).
The 2030 SDGs Game : A sustainability Workshop for CMU Alumni (SDG4,target 4.7)
On 21 June 2025, CMU’s School of Lifelong Education ran The 2030 SDGs Game,free workshop aimed at CMU Alumni of every year and fuculty, at the W3 Hotel in Hat Yai,Songkhla. Seventy places were offered.The card-based world simulation game,developed in Japan and played by more than 400,000 people worldwide,was led by a certified 2030 SDGs facilitator. Through the game, alumni learned about Sustainable Deveopment Goals and explored ideas for lifelong and sustainable communiies.
Data Science From Zero to Hero : Free Upskilling for CMU Alumni (SDG4,target4.4, and SDG8)
In August 2025,the School of Lifelong Education and CMU’s Alumni Relations office offered every CMU alumnus and alumna free enrolment in Data Science From Zero to Hero, a programme normally priced at 4,000 baht. It combines five Basic AI courses with five courses on data analytics using Excel,needs no prior background, and can be studied online for 12 months, with a certificate on completion.
Target group: Local residents
CMU faculties take learning into nearby communities so residents can look after their own health and take part in community life on equal terms, in support of SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).
Health-education day in Chiang Rai (SDG3)
On 13 December 2025, the Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences marked its 50th anniversary with a community health-education day at Pha Khwang Wittaya School in Mae Yao Subdistrict, Mueang District, Chiang Rai. More than 500 local residents took part. Faculty staff and students gave each person health counselling and practical advice on self-care, alongside fitness and grip-strength tests, dementia screening, a stress and happiness assessment and chest X-rays. The day was organised with the Singha Asa authorities and the medical faculties,Mae Fah Luang University and the University of Phayao,and was led by
Introduction to Sign Language, a free online course (SDG10)
CMU’s School of Lifelong Education also offers Introduction to Sign Language, a free online course in Thai Sign Language on the CMU MOOC platform. Anyone can enrol without prior qualifications, and learners study at their own pace until February 2026.The course teaches people to communicate with the deaf community, in support of Sustainable Development Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities)
Non-degree short courses for the public through CMU Lifelong Education (SDG3,SDG4,SDG12 and SDG16)
In 2025, CMU ran 47 non-degree short courses open to the public on its lifelong learning platform,almost all of them online. They came from the Faculty of Medicine, the School of Lifelong Education, the Language Institute,the College of Arts, Media and Technology and other units. Many were written for residents and families rather than for professionals:
- Preventing falls in older people, and basic skills for caring for patients at home (SDG3)
- Workplace hazards and toxic substances, and how to spot onlibe scams (SDG3 & SDG16)
- Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of products (SDG12)
- Everyday Korean, Chinese and Japanese, and English Conservation for Young Learners (SDG4)
- A series of eight courses on positive psychology and self-care from the School of Lifelong Education (SDG3)
Target group: Displaced people are refugees
CMU’s Regional Center Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) works with people displaced from Myanmar and offers them education and research training, in support of SDG target 4.5 (equal access to education for people in vulnerable situations) and target 10.2 (social inclusion of all).
Certificate Program on Development Studies and Social Research for Myanmar students (SDG4)
From October 2024 to April 2025, RCSD taught a six-month online certificate programme for Myanmar students. Twenty places were offered, lectures were given in Burmese, and scholarships covered students in financial need.
Fellowship and cross-community learning (SDG4 and SDG16)
RCSD’s fellowship for at-risk scholars from Myanmar, funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, supported ten members of the Civil Disobedience Movement to continue their research; RCSD published their work in November 2025 as Ethnography Thrice Under Fire. Through its SPACE project, which works with refugee and migrant rights advocates among others,RCSD also held the Guardians Under Pressure cross-community learning workshop on 26 September.