Dr KHIENG Sothy

Former Senior Research Fellow

Dr KHIENG Sothy had been with CDRI since 2008. He is a co-editor of Cambodia Education 2015: Employment and Empowerment, for which he did research on the technical training and skills development challenges faced by Cambodia and policy options for overcoming them. His wide-ranging research experience includes public health, cross-border trade, social enterprise, and tertiary and vocational education. As a visiting research fellow at Griffith University, Australia, Sothy published peer-reviewed articles in VOLUNTAS and Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. He has a PhD in Organization Sciences from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands, and an MA in International Development Studies from Ohio University, USA, under the Fulbright Scholar Program.

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KHIENG Sothy


Edited Books

The emergence of global knowledge societies makes it necessary for Cambodian Post-Secondary Education and Training (PSET) system to: accelerate its knowledge-creation function, leading to academic excellence and intellectual prowess; cultivate vocational value, professional quality, and workplace learning habits in its students; build a robust...

Working Papers 127

This qualitative study examines the development of STEM programs in Cambodian higher education, using as its theoretical framework Chesky and Wolfmeyer’s (2015) concept of an integrative STEM education, which highlights the intersections between purpose, pedagogy and content. The teaching of STEM in Cambodia remains discipline-based, dominated by t...

International Publications

STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education is attracting increasing public interest and policy attention and being promoted at different educational levels in Cambodia. The study seeks to identify factors associated with Cambodian university freshmen’s choice of STEM major and how significant associations differ by gender and un...

Working Papers 118

Numerous studies have identified the importance of a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem in stimulating and sustaining innovation and entrepreneurship. Local entrepreneurial ecosystems are made up of both formal and informal institutions, which include legal, economic, institutional, political, social and cultural factors. As well as providing variou...

International Publications 11 - 3

This article focuses on the intricate nature of scaling practices in social enterprise organizations (SEOs). The research is based on case study methodology in two different institutional environments, the Netherlands and Cambodia. Comparing and contrasting these cases, the article raises questions about ways in which the institutional environments...

International Publications

Over the past sixty years, Cambodia has made great strides in expanding access to primary education. Much less progress has been made with respect to quality. That may be changing, however, with a new education minister promoting ambitious reforms with quality at their centre. The chapter explains the quality agenda as a product of new demands on t...

International Publications

This paper examines the quality of primary education provision in Cambodia using a ‘political settlements’ framework developed at the University of Manchester. The framework characterises Cambodia as a ‘hybrid’ settlement with a weak dominant party and predatory administration, albeit with some islands of administrative effectiveness. Such states c...

Edited Books

Improving the education system is one of the most significant challenges facing Cambodia. This study is the result of consultation and collaboration with national executive and legislative institutions, education institutions, development partners and private education providers that form a significant repository of skills, knowledge and experience...

Working Papers 70

This research project represents the first baseline socioeconomic survey that CDRI has conducted for the Greater Mekong Sub-region Transmission Project of Asian Development Bank. The study was designed to develop a set of comprehensive baseline demographic, social and economic as well as energy consumption indicators for the project. The tools...


A five-year project called ‘Education Research for Effective Policy Reforms’ with a total funding of USD446,713 aims to produce independent, objective, high quality policy-relevant higher education research, and to maximise the accessibility of this knowledge to policymakers, influencers and stakeholders, and its policy impact. This project also wo...


The “Higher Education Policy Research & Influencing in Cambodia” was one of the major programmes implemented by the Education Unit of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI). Receiving financial support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the three-year programme aimed to produce independent, objective, hi...