Tertiary education’s troubles

Friday, 06 January 2012
Sam Rany
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post

Dear editor,

Having read your interesting article “For many, it’s a matter of degrees” (Post, January 3), I would like to express my deep concerns about the quality of education in Cambodian higher education institutions HEIs).

As a Cambodian civil servant who has worked with HEIs for five years, I want to highlight several crucial problems that need to be urgently addressed, as they could aff-ect the quality of education Cambodian students receive, thus putting their academic success and employment opportunities at risk.

The first problem is the constraints on higher-education financing, which is limited by the government’s budget.

According to the World Bank, overall education expenditure accounted for only 1.6 per cent of Cambodia’s gross domestic product last year, and public higher-education expenditure a mere 0.05 per cent of GDP.

The second problem is admission requirements. The entry criteria for institutions of higher learning in Cambodia are not specific and are based on the results of high-school examinations.

The third problem is academic relevance. Public and private HEIs are competing to provide the same subjects – business studies, economics and IT – but what the nation really needs are people who have studied science, mathematics, agriculture and health. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them.

The high rate of unemployment among university graduates is partly because many of them lack the skills needed in the labour market.

The fourth problem involves autonomy and academic freedom. Public HEIs remain under the control of a centralised bureaucracy, resulting in serious underfunding and low salaries for staff.

Lack of Research Among Academics a ‘Problem’: Lecturer

Peou Chivoin, a lecturer of media theory and research at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. (Photo: by Heng Reaksmey)

Friday, 26 August 2011
Say Mony, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

"In much of Cambodian academics, the focus is on teaching, but not on research."

Cambodia’s higher education would do well to include more research and critical thinking demands on its professors, a university lecturer said Thursday.

“When [academics] do research, it is like they are exercising and it requires them to think critically, thus boosting the overall quality of their abilities and work,” said Peou Chivoin, a lecturer of media theory and research at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. “When people conduct research, they get to know social phenomena and try to determine problems that arise and come up with solutions.”

In much of Cambodian academics, the focus is on teaching, but not on research, he said.

Cambodia's higher education dreams confront reality [-A bleak future for Cambodian univeristy graduates]

Cambodian students are seen at the windows of a university in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — She has two years to go until graduation, but already Cambodian student Chhum Savorn is filled with a sense of dread.

The 21-year-old decided to major in finance, hoping she would acquire skills to help develop her country, which is one of the poorest in the world.

Instead, she thinks her education is nearly worthless -- classes are mostly packed with indifferent, cheating students and led by under-qualified professors.

"The low quality of my studies means that I can't help the country, and I'll even have a hard time getting a job that pays enough to help my family," she says.

A growing number of eager young Cambodians are finding themselves duped into a higher education system that suffers from weak management and teaching because it is geared more toward profit than learning.

As a result only one in ten recent graduates are finding work, a worrying figure in a country trying to rebuild after decades of civil war.

Cambodia's schools were obliterated under Khmer Rouge rule in the 1970s when the regime killed nearly two million people -- including most of the country's intellectuals -- as it emptied cities in its bid to forge a Communist utopia.

But as the country rebuilds and the economy grows, it is inundated with institutions peddling low-quality education.

In 2000, there were ten post-secondary institutions in Cambodia. Now there are 70 private and state-run universities.

Most programs offered by those institutions are dismal, says Mak Ngoy, deputy director general of higher education at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

"We are not yet satisfied with the current quality of our education," Mak Ngoy says.

"I think increasing the number of higher education institutions is a positive sign, but we are struggling with the hard task of strengthening quality," he adds.

Qualified university professors complain that many students rarely do their work and cheating is rampant.

A number of students are content to pay for a degree and do not realise the benefit of a good education, says Lav Chhiv Eav, rector of Royal University of Phnom Penh, the oldest and largest state-owned college.

"Some students are scared of studying hard and think what they need is any degree, not quality. The final result will be joblessness," he says.

Most of Cambodia's universities are small-scale institutions with limited of capital, poor facilities and little discipline.

So far, the education ministry has ordered the closing of four institutions that called themselves universities, but gave little education to students.

Five years ago there was an attempt to fix Cambodia's higher education institutions, with the formation of a national university accreditation committee.

The committee was formed to force institutions to adhere to strict education requirements, but the World Bank pulled its funding for the scheme when it became clear the body would not be independent from government control.

With little official oversight, the quality of many Cambodian universities has worsened, while the number of Cambodians seeking a diploma has shot up.

More than 135,000 Cambodians are currently enrolled in some form of higher education, says the education ministry, compared to just 25,000 eight years ago.

But only one in 10 recent university graduates have found work, according to the Economic Institute of Cambodia, as the country remains mired in poverty despite the double-digit economic growth.

Ma Sopheap, officer at the Asian Development Bank, says Cambodia will have trouble luring foreign investment if it does not start producing more qualified graduates.

"If the low quality of higher education continues, it will affect Cambodia's economic development," he says. "Then there is no way to reduce poverty."