A World Bank credit project called “Higher Education Improvement Project (HEIP)” has been launched by the Government of Cambodia to improve the quality of education in STEM and agriculture at targeted institutions of higher education in Cambodia.

To pursue the project’s objectives, the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and Osaka Prefecture University (OPU) established a Partnership Agreement on April 17, 2021, for a period extending from April 2021 to March 2024. Through HEIP, both universities are collaborating to create three undergraduate programs (in Food Technology/Biotechnology, Telecommunication and Electronics, and Data Science and Engineering) and one master’s program in Data Science and Engineering at RUPP.

OPU supports RUPP in developing its curriculums using CDIO (Conceive Design Implement Operate), an international engineering curriculum framework. Also, OPU offers training opportunities to RUPP staff in addition to developing teaching materials.

A kick-off symposium took place online on Wednesday, June 30 to mark the start of the project.

After opening remarks from H.E. Dr. Chealy CHET (RUPP rector), Prof. Masahiro TATSUMISAGO (President of OPU), and representatives from both the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and the World Bank in Cambodia, the audience listened to an introduction of the project and the two participating universities. The symposium then moved on to two keynote lectures: one by Prof. Naritoshi AOYAGI (Nagaoka National College of Technology) on the implementation of CDIO scheme and the other by Assoc. Prof. Tomohiro TAIRA & Dr. Tomoya HASHIMOTO (Osaka City University) on the monitoring and evaluation of learning outcomes.

The three-year project launched successfully. OPU is looking forward to working together with RUPP to achieve the project goals.

Contribution to SDGs

4: Quality education
17: Partnerships for the goals