Growth and Inclusivity in Cambodia’s Higher Education

ongoing

The GAIN project envisions a systemic shift in the higher education landscape of Cambodia to foster a disability-inclusive, equitable, and diverse academic environment for Persons with Physical Disabilities (PWD). PWDs (mobility, visual, hearing, speech impairments and chronic health conditions) are amongst the groups that are marginalised by the lack of policies, support services, infrastructure and educational capacity in higher education. The project aims to transform Cambodian Higher Education Roadmap 2030 and the ASEAN Enabling Masterplan 2025 guidelines into practises, helping the Government and the Institutions to implement set policies. The objective is to ensure that Cambodian Higher Education Institutions are accessible, inclusive, and equipped to support the diverse needs of PWD. Acknowledging the multifaceted nature of inclusivity challenges, the GAIN project adopts a quadruple helix approach, fostering synergistic collaborations among government entities, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector. This holistic strategy will encompass a series of co-designed interventions, with a particular emphasis on policy refinement, capacity enhancement, and the establishment of inclusive practices within the Cambodian higher educational landscape. A consortium comprising five Cambodian and four European partner institutions, in conjunction with the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, is poised to spearhead this initiative. Through these collaborative efforts, GAIN aspires to initiate a sustainable and replicable model of systemic change, with the potential to benefit the entire Cambodian higher education sector comprehensively.