Abstract
Closed to the outside world during the Pol Pot regime, restructured as a socialist state, then pushed towards democracy and a market economy as a result of foreign technical assistance provided through numerous multi- and bi-lateral aid and development programs, Cambodia is still one of the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific region, albeit with a now rapidly growing economy. One consequence of the recent economic growth is that private higher education institutions are proliferating with little regulation. The Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), like the handful of other government universities , remains under central government control but, like countless universities around the world, has been forced to make commercial decisions as a result of inadequate recurrent funding. This has engaged the RUPP with the processes of globalization in a way similar to that faced by higher education institutions in so-called ‘developed’ countries. However, one difference is the obliteration of an entire generation of academics that occurred as a result of the Khmer Rouge regime. In this chapter, the authors examine some of the ways in which the Royal University of Phnom Penh is negotiating the impact of globalization within this unique historical context.
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- 1.
Terminology in development studies is highly problematic, including the use of the term ‘development’. We, like many others, would much prefer to use an alternative to the common terms ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ when categorizing countries. As far back as 1955, Niculescu (1955, p. 546) pointed out one of the difficulties associated with these terms:
The present meaning of “under-developed” has an historical bias: development seems to be understood as from some common level defined in terms of the Western industrial and agrarian revolution … Though this is a perfectly legitimate historical approach, it is not only useless but can also be very confusing when the attention is turned from the past accomplishments to the future.
A second difficulty with these terms is that they position one group of countries—the economically powerful—as at a desirable end-point with no allowance for any critique of the possibly less-desirable characteristics of those societies. Conversely, the other group—the economically peripheral—are positioned as having as their only desirable goal the replication of the characteristics of the ‘developed’ group with no possibility of identifying characteristics of their own society that may be beneficial to the ‘developed’ societies. Alternate categorizations, however, such as ‘majority’ world or ‘two-thirds world’ are static categories that may well be shortly out of date with the continued growth in China and India . In the absence of alternatives, we continue, reluctantly, to follow Vulliamy et al. (1990) and use the terms ‘developed’ and “developing” as a “shorthand way of describing those countries which are characterized by relatively low levels of per capital income, limited industrialization and restricted infrastructure” (p. 2).
- 2.
For the purpose of comparison, it was recently estimated that the total income needed for a ‘middle class’ lifestyle in Phnom Penh—that, is, a small apartment with electricity, a television, computer and car for a family of two adults and two children—was about $ 250 per month.
- 3.
Cambodia ’s tourism industry continued to grow in 2008, with visitor arrivals for the period January to August 2008 reported as 1,398,557, a 10.1% increase compared to the same period in 2007 (Ministry of Tourism 2008)
- 4.
There are currently 418 such organizations listed in the Cambodian Yellow Pages. By contrast, there are only 299 listings of Bars and Pubs and 242 listings for the Banking and Finance sector.
- 5.
Although the gap between salaries paid to ‘international’ and ‘national’ consultants remains obscene—‘international’ consultants are often paid USD $ 10,000 per month while often highly qualified ‘national’ consultants, working alongside their international counterpart, can expect to earn USD $ 1,000 per month.
- 6.
It is often said that the true measure of secure economic growth is the opening of one or both of the two major international fast-food franchises, Macdonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken. On this measure, Cambodia ’s economy has reached the tipping point—at the time of writing, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet had just opened in Phnom Penh in the first half of 2008.
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Howes, D., Ford, D. (2011). Negotiating Globalization: The Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In: Marginson, S., Kaur, S., Sawir, E. (eds) Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1500-4_8
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