Recovering from Runaway Privatization in Cambodian Higher Education: The Regulatory Pressure of ASEAN Integration

Abstract

Since opening to the international community following the Paris Peace Accords in 1991, Cambodia has incrementally adopted a stance of political liberalization. Whether because of the exigencies of reconstruction and development or by intention, large tracts of the institutional domain have been delivered into the hands of development agencies, corporations, non-governmental organizations and other private entities. Higher education was no exception, witnessing runaway growth in private-sector capacity in a lax regulatory environment since the mid-1990s. Despite more recent regulatory assertiveness reflecting the government’s enhanced capacity, the imminent processes of regional integration in ASEAN are again diminishing the Cambodian state’s autonomy and room to maneuver.