NEWS

The CEHETLI held the fifth policy dialogue ‘Scaling Up the Professional Development of University Teachers in Cambodia’ with The Faculty of Education and Human Development (FEHD) of The Education University of Hong Kong. The event brought together 37 university leaders and senior higher education officials from the Cambodian partner universities to discuss how universities can scale up professional development with the support from the CEHETLI and the Master Teachers from the six partner universities, i.e., the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), National University of Battambang (NUBB), Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Svay Rieng University (SRU), and University of Heng Samrin Thbongkhmum (UHST).

A total of 36 Master Teachers have fulfilled all the requirements that successfully completed the Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education programme (GCTLHE). Dr Nith Bunlay, Deputy Director General of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) expressed his enthusiasm for the success of Master Teachers, “We believe the Master Teachers as the resource persons can provide quality professional development and promote quality access to teaching and learning in Cambodian universities with the support of the CEHETLI and EdUHK”.

“FEHD would work closely with the CEHETLI to support the Master Teachers to provide quality professional development for quality enhancement of higher education teaching and learning in Cambodia.” said Prof Lim Cher Ping, Associate Dean (International Engagement) of FEHD.

In his presentation, Prof Lim shared how to set up an ecosystem for teacher professional development in universities and emphasised the importance of establishing policies and strategies at the university level to ensure quality professional development.

Dr Bunlay commented echoed, “It is crucial for the universities to develop an ecosystem for professional development of the staff, such as incentives to support capacity building”.

Professor Lim’s presentation was followed by the discussion of senior management staff from the partner universities, chaired by Dr Souma Svay and Dr Mam Socheath from the Faculty of Education at RUPP. The participants shared their expectations of the university policies for professional development. Dr Bunlay highlighted that universities can work closely with the Master Teachers to scale up the professional development for quality higher education teaching and learning.

At the end of the event, Dr Mam Socheath from the Faculty of Education at RUPP, charting the next steps, thanked the support and recommendations from the participants, emphasised that RUPP team would work closely with the CEHETLI and the FEHD to scale up the professional development among six partner universities.