Brian Stoddart

I am presently working in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as Chief Technical Adviser to the Higher Education Quality and Capacity Improvement Project (HEQCIP) funded by the World Bank.  Run from the Department of Higher Education (DHE), the project aims to upgrade the qualifications and expertise of academic staff and policy-level staff in DHE and other departments; improve learning/teaching and research capabilities; strengthen sector-wide planning and strategic development; and enhance governance and management capabilities within the sector.

Cambodian authorities see higher education as a social and economic driver for national development, so the project links into several other areas of the national development strategies, with a focus on improving expertise in areas like manufacturing and agriculture.

This is a big and important project given the on-going rebuilding of Cambodia following the blight of the Khmer Rouge period which, in particular, decimated higher education and intellectual ranks so that an entire generation or so of scholars and teachers disappeared.

To help with that rebuilding the project looks to establish selected connections with institutions and systems outside the country in order to gain greater insight and knowledge, and several important links will be established during 2012.