The University of Cambodia, represented by Ms. Por Malis, Vice President for Operations, attended a seminar and study visit program on Education Quality Management Monitoring and Evaluation, at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. This program was organized by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS) under the World Bank’s technical assistance project. There were 18 higher education institutions represented, and members of management from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport also attended.
The program aimed to focus on higher education improvement programs in order to enhance management capacity of higher education in all aspects for better education services in Cambodia including administration and operation management, education facilities, finance, curriculum, teaching, and research. The forum discussed a performance-based management approach, which can be applied for service management of universities. This approach promotes a long-term education quality improvement plan, and the development of the university’s vision, mission, and strategic plan. This approach includes continuous monitoring and evaluation of the university’s performance by internal and external assessment bodies. The program focused on internal management systems embedded in the university that help to increase overall performance.
As the universities in Thailand are mandated to comply with rules and regulations of higher authorities in education, allocation of resources and funds is to be in coherence with national goals as well as outcomes the universities produce.
The program began with a sharing session by several speakers, including, but not limited to:
1. Dr. Chantavit Sujatanond, Member of the National Committee for Development of Quality Assessment
for Higher Education, the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment.
He shared about ASEAN Quality Assurance Framework for Higher Education. He explained that the Thai Government has a vision “to make Thai people smarter,” and they want their universities to be ready for ASEAN integration. They have created an external assessment body called ONESQA to assess the quality of education at the universities. ONESQA will review the Self Assessment Report by the university every 5 years upon the request from the university. Universities in Thailand are provided the freedom to select and apply for different accreditation bodies based on programs/skills and services they offer.
2. Mr. Voravate Chonlasin, Senior Program Specialist and Head of Public Sector and Capacity Building
Program, AIT Extention, AIT
He shareda brief history of the Thai Government reform regarding education after Thailand faced financial crisis in 1997. The reform brought Thailand into the current education system, whichallows more decentralization in terms of government involvement and within the universities themselves, giving more autonomy to departments and requiring less institutional bureaucracy. The Thai Government has engaged different stakeholders (government officials, NGOs, academic institutions, farmers, and private sector representatives) to provide comments on education policies. Universities must have an internal assessment team established by the university, but the internal assessment team must by selected from the assessor list recognized by the government and external party bodies to check the quality.
Besides the sharing session, there was a study visit program at the Ministry of Education and various universities, as follows:
