In 2017, The HEAD Foundation provided a grant to Prof Lim Cher Ping from the Education University of Hong Kong to build the capacities of Cambodian universities for blended learning to enhance the quality and efficiency of education.
Higher education has been increasingly recognised as a critical powerhouse of development to meet emerging needs and demands of knowledge-based economies. In Cambodia, the first major issue is the unequal access to higher education. The latest data for Cambodia from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reveals only 11% of the tertiary-age population in urban areas and 5% in rural areas is enrolled in tertiary education. Second, the limited quality of teaching and learning activities is another great challenge facing Cambodia’s universities today.
As a deliberate synthesis of online (asynchronous and/or synchronous) and face-to-face contact time between teaching staff and students, blended learning is believed to have considerable potential to tackle equity, quality and efficiency issues in higher education. While the potential of blended learning is apparent, it has been recognised that the effectiveness of blended learning can largely depend on the context in which it is adopted and how it is implemented. Therefore, there is a need to understand more on how to build the capacities of Cambodian universities for blended learning at the ground level so that the efforts can be gradually scaled in higher education in Cambodia.
The latest data for Cambodia from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reveals only 11% of the tertiary-age population in urban areas and 5% in rural areas is enrolled in tertiary education.
The HEAD Foundation has offered a grant to Prof Lim Cher Ping (The Education University of Hong Kong) to build the capacities of Cambodian universities for blended learning to enhance the quality and efficiency of the country’s higher education. This project relates to The HEAD Foundation’s overall objectives in improving human capital and education, particularly higher education in an ASEAN member state.
A policy brief on ICT from Prof Lim’s findings was produced and a policy forum on ICT in ASEAN education was organised.
The HEAD Foundation is also supporting another Blended Learning project on English Education in Thailand.