Quality of Education and Research in Cambodian Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

In the past two decades, most Asian countries overcame the financial crisis in the late 1990s and have been realizing significant economic growth. Along with economic expansion, many Asian countries have developed their higher education sector, in both quantitative and qualitative respects. Because of drastic expansion in the higher education sector in many Asian countries, the relationship between universities and the government has changed, and the governance reforms have been inevitable to cope with rapidly increasing demand for higher education. One of the main features of such governance reforms, heavily influenced by neoliberal ideology, has been the introduction of decentralization policy, which has promoted a more autonomous status for universities, including proliferation of private universities. Cambodia has been no exception.