Graduate Studies Blog

NANYANG EXECUTIVE EMBA

NTU EMBA ALUMNUS DR CHEA VANDETH ENABLES FUTURE WORKFORCE WITH QUALITY EDUCATION IN CAMBODIA

Dr Chea Vandeth—the Class of 2016 EMBA alumnus and currently Cambodia’s Minister of Post and Telecommunications—shares how his time at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU, Singapore) helped him cultivate strong leadership to create social impact in his home country of Cambodia.

Teachers need to learn too! Nanyang Executive MBA (EMBA) alumnus Dr Chea Vandeth appreciated the value of good pedagogy and therefore wanted to learn from the best. “Soon after my Ph.D. in 1997, I returned to my home country and taught at two universities in Cambodia,” Dr Chea shares.

While teaching, he observed that good quality education was still lacking. “While the number of public and private universities had increased to more than a hundred, there were increasing concerns about education quality due to this rapid growth. Having seen this challenge, I thought Cambodia needed a good university to provide a benchmark,” he explains.

Dr Chea, who is currently Cambodia’s Minister of Post and Telecommunications, had foreseen the growing importance of technology in improving the quality and access to his country’s education system.

On his quest to leverage digital innovation in the country’s education system, Dr Chea came to Singapore to gain more knowledge on good governance and digital transformation. He was particularly interested in the Nanyang EMBA programme as it offered the specifics he needed to deepen his understanding of the Western education system, and how it could be applied in the Cambodian context.

The programme’s unique overseas residential segments in the USA gave him the global exposure he sought to broaden his perspectives. Such exposure was incredibly useful as his current ministerial post always challenges him to cultivate a global leadership mindset to solve complex problems.

“The Nanyang EMBA programme helped me acquire transformative knowledge by delving into successful and unsuccessful case studies from around the world. I have also gained more experiences from my peers who were global senior leaders from the private and public sectors.”

Implementing Change with Executive Education

Dr Chea Vandeth believes by leveraging technology in higher education, Cambodia can build a more robust workforce amidst a ferocious labour market.

“Robust tertiary education can lay down a strong foundation for a successful digital transformation in Cambodia and help us leapfrog the development stages by taking advantage of the fourth industrial revolution in the upcoming years,” he says.

Having seen this challenge, Dr Chea realised  Cambodia needed a good university to provide the best model for others to benchmark.

In 2013, he finally implemented his vision. Dr Chea recounts, “In consultation with several universities in the USA, I decided to establish the American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP) to provide rich and poor Cambodian students equal opportunity to receive a quality education.”

AUPP is the only university that provides internationally recognised US-accredited degree programmes to students in the country. At the university, 45 percent of outstanding students receive a scholarship, while the remaining 55 percent pay the tuition fees themselves, he adds.

The confluence of learnings from NTU equipped Dr Chea with relevant leadership and technical capabilities to implement changes at AUPP to remain competitive in the era of globalisation.

“Studying at NTU provided me with a lot of useful tools to make AUPP stronger in education management and to transform AUPP to be the leader of higher education in Cambodia.”

Building the Workforce of Tomorrow

Dr Chea believes that higher education with a strong international foundation is playing an even more important role in Cambodia’s economic growth. Combining rich and vibrant Cambodian culture with the global outlook, the hybrid education model as exemplified by AUPP can push the boundaries of learning to help students grow and think more critically to answer the pressing needs in the Cambodian society.

“We strive to build a tertiary education system that prepares students to be the future innovators and leaders of tomorrow as they will become the engine that drives Cambodia into the ASEAN integration,” he says.

Enhancing greater access to quality education also requires strong digital infrastructure on every front. The Nanyang EMBA’s digital focus inspired Dr Chea to create a development trajectory that seeks to eradicate the digital divide in his country. To achieve this vision, Dr Chea underscores that the Cambodian government must focus on strengthening infrastructure development and broadband connectivity.

“We will facilitate the adoption of technology in education, the business community, NGOs, and households. We will also ensure good governance in the technology sector by developing effective policies and regulatory frameworks, together with the development of ICT human capital,” he concludes.

 

The Nanyang Executive MBA is a part-time 13-months programme that is designed for senior leaders aspiring to innovate and transform the way they lead. The programme aims to embrace the connection between business, technology, and innovation to deliver a relevant curriculum to business leaders to excel in global environments and adapt to each new wave of digital change.

 

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Click here to learn more about the Nanyang Executive MBA programme or contact us at execmba@ntu.edu.sg.