[1][2] NIDA is considered the first Thai educational institution to offer a Master of Public Administration (MPA) program.

which is a very important factor in the development of the country And finally, a project was proposed to the government to establish the Institute with initial assistance from the Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation (now USAID), the Ford Foundation, and the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA).

The Institute has faculty member from Indiana University, USA, as the leading U.S. School of Public Affairs, participated in the curriculum and conducted the teaching.

[1] At the beginning, NIDA was an autonomous institute affiliated with Thammasat University which ran its own activities and managed its own budget.

NIDA is a Public Policy School that has expertise to providing academic work in response towards development economics, governance, international security and sustainable development, especially in the context of the ASEAN NIDA has partnerships with the following universities and institutions: