The university dynamic within the South-East Asia region takes place in a changing environment, whether economic, environmental, technological, cultural, social or legal, whether local, national or regional.

These changes condition the definition and operational implementation of the classic academic missions of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the face of the challenges they face:

Demographic pressure and generalization of compulsory secondary education.

Socio-economic impact of the development of the middle classes with consequences on the demand for continuing education.

Technological and more generally digital developments

Perspectives for the empowerment of institutions and search for diversification of financial resources

Definition and implementation of a contextualized quality approach and declined in the areas of vocational training offer and research-innovation (non-exhaustive list).

These changes underway in Cambodia as in Vietnam must be thought of as so many challenges that HEIs must take up: whatever their environment or their level of development, they are aware of the need to include these changes in the definition and implementation. in place of their strategic development plans, in order to enable them to fully assume social responsibility.

Considering the world of education and research as a strategic engine of development, however, presupposes meeting certain challenges, such as identifying the training needs of society. It is through a dialogue between the academic world and socio-economic actors that shared solutions can develop, and thus strengthen the alignment between the socio-economic needs of a society and the training offer of a HEI, especially with regard to his first professionalizing cycles. It is also a question of promoting the innovation resulting from research and its positive impact on its socio-economic environment, and of relying on models of technology transfer already tested in order to study their transposition in other conditions and environments.

In addition to this challenge linked to a changing environment, there is another challenge: the political will of the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments to empower HEIs.