Higher Education in Cambodia : Expansion and quality improvement

While many countries have experienced rapid growth in higher education in recent years, few have grown as rapidly as Cambodia. Moving from less than a thousand students in a single institution in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, the Cambodian higher education system has expanded by a factor of 65 over 1980 levels. This paper draws on a unique dataset of national higher education statistics to paint a picture of the growth of the system over the past 30 years, its extent and nature, along with some of the implications for access, quality, and composition. While some of this expansion has taken place in the public sector, the vast majority of growth can be seen in the proliferation of private institutions and in dramatic increases in the numbers of fee-paying students in public institutions. Demand for higher education has far outstripped government capacity for provision. Government allows a robust private sector while working to establish an appropriate regulatory regime.