Higher Education in Cambodia

Abstract

The Government of Cambodia has recognized the importance of higher education and has taken a number of steps to expand access. At the same time, awareness is growing of the importance of improvements in quality, particularly given the rapid expansion of the system². This chapter describes the expansion of higher education³ in Cambodia over the past 30 years. The chapter relies primarily on a unique dataset of institution-level statistics assembled from data collected over the past 30 years by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS). In addition, the chapter draws on data from the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), both from its published sources and from the Institute for Statistics’ online data. Cambodia is not alone in facing issues of expansion and quality. Nor is it alone in facing the challenges of developing its system in a context of intense globalization. Still, relatively few education systems in the world have been as debilitated as was Cambodia’s 30 years ago.

The original version of this chapter was published in Higher Education Forum, published by Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. The authors would like to express sincere appreciation to Mr. Khieu Vicheanon, Deputy Secretary General at the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia, who kindly provided insightful comments on the draft manuscript.