Second Higher Education Improvement Project

The development objective of the Second Higher Education Improvement Project for Cambodia is to improve quality and relevance of higher education and research mainly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at targeted higher education institutions, and to provide immediate and effective response in case of an eligible crisis or emergency. The project comprises of three components. The first component, improving quality and relevance of academic programs and research aims to enhance the quality and relevance of higher education and research at the targeted Higher Education Institution (HEIs) in the fields of STEM, and potentially other complementary fields, including English, architecture, and archaeology, which are deemed necessary for the country’s development. It consists of following sub-components: (i) improving quality and relevance of academic programs; (ii) improving quality and relevance of research; and (iii) strengthening institutional governance. The second component, strengthening higher education sectoral governance and research management capacity aims to strengthen the system of higher education sector by improving sectoral governance, research management and development, and project management. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strengthening higher education sectoral governance; (ii) building research management capacity; and (iii) strengthening project management and evaluation. The third component, contingent emergency response component (CERC) with zero allocation will provide swift response in the event of an eligible crisis or emergency, by enabling Cambodia to request the World Bank for reallocation of uncommitted project funds to support emergency response and reconstruction.