Cambodia’s aspirations to become a knowledge-based society: Challenges and recommendations

Cambodia aspires to become a knowledge-based society to remain relevant in the context of the global knowledge-based economy. However, it remains uncertain how this aspiration can be realized considering the low quality of the country’s education system. Drawing on secondary sources, this article aims to shed light on Cambodia’s aspirations for a knowledge-based society. The article begins by defining the term “knowledge-based society” before providing an overview of the Cambodian education system and discussing key challenges that limit Cambodia’s ability to realize its vision to become a knowledge society. Key challenges were related to low higher education enrollment, a shortage of educational staff with doctoral degrees, a weak innovation capacity, and other critical challenges such as low academic salaries, a lack of clear academic career pathways, limited research funding, and limited knowledge about research. The article provides a set of recommendations that concerned stakeholders should consider to improve the quality of the Cambodian education system and support the country to achieve its goal in developing into a knowledge-based society. It concludes with suggestions for future research to generate new knowledge about Cambodia—a context underrepresented in international literature.