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Transformations in Higher Education Governance in Asia pp 229–243Cite as

Cambodian Higher Education Governance: The Politics of Global Summitry and Clientelism

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Abstract

This chapter uses the concepts of “global summitry” and “clientelism” to theorize higher education governance in Cambodia. After reviewing the history of higher education since the 1960s, the chapter analyzes the country’s experiences amid regional attempts to harmonize standards, degree structures, quality assurance systems, and credit systems in Southeast Asia. Rather than explicit intervention into Cambodia’s higher education sector as has been historically common, the contemporary order transmits policy and governance practices through various regional and international forums, creating a seemingly homogenous system of higher education. External influence through global summitry, however, must be paired with a recognition of the prevalence of clientelism. By exploring the case of the Accreditation Council of Cambodia, higher education governance is shown to reproduce the engrained system of clientelism, empowering elites and contributing further to systems of informal patronage. The chapter concludes with recent (up to April 2016) developments in higher education governance, offering some observations and obstacles for future development in the sector.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The stated vision of the Cambodian higher education is “to build a quality higher education system that develops human resources with excellent knowledge, skills and moral values in order to work and live within the era of globalization and knowledge-based society” and a goal “to develop a good governance system and higher education mechanisms that ensure qualified students have an opportunity to access quality higher education programs which respond to the needs of socio-economic development and labor market” (MoEYS 2014, p. 3). These declarations echo the three factors Salmi (2009), a World Bank staff member, outlines for world class universities: “(a) a high concentration of talent (faculty and students), (b) abundant resources to offer a rich learning environment and to conduct advanced research, and (c) favorable governance features that encourage strategic vision, innovation, and flexibility and that enable institutions to make decisions and to manage resources without being encumbered by bureaucracy” (p. 7; original emphasis).

  2. 2.

    Kitamura and colleagues (2016, p. 208) show that some institutions of higher education were established as early as 1918 (e.g., the Royal University of Fine Arts) but that the designation of “university” did not occur until the 1960s.

  3. 3.

    Cambodia achieved independence from France in 1953.

  4. 4.

    In a move he would later regret, Sihanouk backed the Khmer Rouge in an ill-fated attempt to regain state influence, which he had lost to Lon Nol in 1970. The Khmer Rouge used Sihanouk’s Royalist credentials to legitimize its growing communist uprising against Lon Nol. Once in power, however, the Khmer Rouge imprisoned Sihanouk in the royal palace, leaving him powerless to combat the genocide for which the Khmer Rouge is infamous.

  5. 5.

    It is not clear to me that the Royal Decree changed in any meaningful way the manner in which politicians were involved in higher education governance in the first place.

  6. 6.

    It should be noted that publically funded scholarships are given to students to study at public and PAI higher education institutions but not private ones. Some private universities offer their own scholarships.

  7. 7.

    For instance, public universities receive financial subsides related to paying for services, such as electricity.

  8. 8.

    Although beyond the scope of this paper, it is interesting to point out that MoEYS oversees the bulk of private institutions (59 out of 72). It could be argued that in the crowded space of higher education governance, where 15 different ministries compete for influence and resources, MoEYS implicitly or explicitly advocated the privatization of higher education as a way to increase its relative power among the competing ministries (or at least, MoEYS gained the most from privatization in terms of power relative to the other supervising ministries). With most universities under its control, MoEYS is in a strong position to exert authority over the entire higher education sector.

  9. 9.

    The country is still dependent on international assistance from institutions such as the World Bank.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Will Brehm

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  1. Will Brehm
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Correspondence to Will Brehm .

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  1. The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Darryl S. L. Jarvis

  2. Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China

    Ka Ho Mok

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Brehm, W. (2019). Cambodian Higher Education Governance: The Politics of Global Summitry and Clientelism. In: Jarvis, D., Mok, K. (eds) Transformations in Higher Education Governance in Asia. Higher Education in Asia: Quality, Excellence and Governance. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9294-8_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9294-8_12

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