EdUHK Engaged in World Bank Project to Build Higher Education Teacher Capacity in Cambodia

Following the completion of the 2017 World Bank project in Vietnam, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) is extending its reach to another ASEAN country, Cambodia, by building the capacity of higher education teachers to enhance access to quality education there.

EdUHK will partner with five Cambodian leading public higher education institutions under the World Bank’s “Higher Education Improvement (HEI)” project on teacher professional development, course development, and collaborative research and knowledge transfer in higher education in the coming four years. The five partner institutions are (in alphabetical order): the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Svay Rieng University (SRU), and the University of Battambang (UBB).

To commence the project, EdUHK President Professor Stephen Cheung Yan-leung has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rector of RUPP Dr Chet Chealy, which covers:

• Establishment of the Centre of Excellence in Higher Education Teaching and Learning and Innovation, which will take a leading role in building up teacher capacity with a mission to develop effective pedagogy, improve classroom learning, build up higher education teachers’ capacities to design and implement academic programmes, etc;
• Development of a Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (GCTLHE) through four 45-hour credit-bearing courses ranging from curriculum development, teaching and learning strategies, learning assessment to action research. These courses will be offered in a blended learning (both face-to-face and online) mode. Thirty-four Cambodian higher education teachers from the five institutions will first participate in the GCTLHE before they serve as master teachers to teach in the programme for the other teachers in their institutions;
• Joint research activities which aim at co-developing a set of resources in both English and Khmer to support the broader implementation of the GCTLHE, to provide resource support for quality teaching and learning, and to nurture innovation in Cambodian higher education classrooms;
• Exchange of staff and students to promote academic collaboration.

Welcoming the partnership, EdUHK President Professor Cheung said, “I believe this World Bank project will have far-reaching impact on Cambodia’s university education, and EdUHK’s involvement is testimony to our leading role in learning and teaching. It also further consolidates our role as an important partner in enhancing the quality of teacher education in Southeast Asia.”

Professor Allan Walker, Dean of Faculty of Education and Human Development at EdUHK, said, “With the signing of this partnership agreement, we hope to sow the seeds of continued and enhanced professional development of higher education in-service teachers in Cambodia.”

Apart from the World Bank, EdUHK and its predecessor have been engaged in a wide array of projects commissioned by the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training to promote education advancement and beyond.