Chiang Mai University ( CMU; ) is a public research university in northern Thailand founded in 1964. It has a strong emphasis on engineering, science, agriculture, and medicine. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education offered through resident instruction. Its main campus lies between Chiang Mai town and Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai Province. The university was the first institution of higher education in northern Thailand, and the first provincial university in Thailand. Campuses Chiang Mai University has four campuses, three of them in Chiang Mai and one in Lamphun, which together cover about . There are 18 housing complexes located on campus for students attending the university. Seventeen of them are on the main campus and one is on the Mae Hea campus Suan Sak Campus (main campus) The main university campus, known as Suan Sak campus () or Cherng Doi (), lies about five kilometres west of the city center. Set against Doi Suthep, the campus occupies a site, bounded on three sides by main shopping streets and on the fourth by the Chiang Mai Zoo. The campus includes the university's administrative centre, the science, engineering, humanities, and social science faculties, political science and public administration, law, the graduate school, all of the campus resource facilities and services and major sports facilities. An attractive feature of this campus is the Ang Kaew Reservoir. Constructed to supply water for the university, it is also a recreational area for campus residents and the local community. In the 1960s, the area was still forested. With conservation in mind, university buildings were constructed between the trees, with the result that the campus still retains much of its original setting. Suan Dok campus Near the main campus, and closer to the city, the health sciences complex, the Suan Dok campus (), occupies a site which includes faculties of medicine, associated medical sciences, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital, known locally as Suan Dok, the largest teaching hospital in northern Thailand. Mae Hia campus About 5 km south of the main campus, the Mae Hia (or Mae Hea) campus () is home to the faculties of veterinary medicine agro-industry and School of Public Policy. The Energy Research and Development Institute (ERDI), the university center for renewable energy (mainly biogas and biomass), and energy efficiency improvement center, moved from the main campus to the Mae Hia campus