SONG Sopheak

Deputy Executive Director (Research)

Dr Song Sopheak is the Deputy Executive Director in charge of research at CDRI. Prior to this current position, he had been with CDRI’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation since 2016, first as the research fellow and then the director between 2020 and 2022. His international experience in research career includes fellowships at the Global Career Design Center of Hiroshima University, Japan; at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne, Australia; and at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Switzerland. At CDRI, he has led several research projects on post-secondary education and training in Cambodia with focus on STEM education, workforce development, employer engagement, and technology integration in education. Dr Song Sopheak holds a PhD in Educational Science and Humanities from Hiroshima University, Japan.

Email : sopheak@cdri.org.kh


SONG Sopheak


Working Papers 143

The global COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented disruptions to the higher education landscape worldwide. Widespread school closures, driven by the imperative of social distancing to combat the virus's spread forced a rapid and dramatic shift from traditional face-to-face instruction to online learning and teaching environments in numerous countr...

Research Reports

The second decade of the 21st century marks the time the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) officially directs the nation’s public sector, economy, and society to accelerate technology adoption and digital transformation. This present study aims to observe developments of such direction in Cambodian higher education (HE) sub-sector before and in re...

International Publications

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of students who switch versus those who do not switch when they transition from upper secondary to higher education. The data from 1338 students randomly selected from 21 HEIs in Cambodia in 2020 found that upper secondary school students are more likely than not to switch academic majors when they...

International Publications

The Royal Government of Cambodia acknowledges the vital role of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in developing a high-quality workforce to better respond to labor market demand and contribute to the national development agenda. In the past decade, with support from and collaboration with development partners, the Government ha...

Cambodia Development Review 27 - 1

This study explored students’ entrepreneurial intention (EI) and identified the factors influencing EI under individual, social and educational dimensions. Using a nationally representative survey conducted in 2021 with 834 university students, we found that many students had a strong EI. From the regression analysis, we can confirm that the develo...

Working Papers 136

Entrepreneurship is crucial to advancing the economy of Cambodia and fostering the development of society. The Royal Government of Cambodia has recognised the importance of entrepreneurship and included the promotion and entrepreneurship education in multiple policies and strategy. Universities and higher education institutes have been more active...

International Publications

Understanding what determines a worker’s passion for skills training has important policy implications, particularly in the current context of the fourth industrial revolution, in which knowledge is deemed obsolete within several years. The purpose of this study is to answer a specific question: are higher-ability garment workers more likely to eng...

Research Reports

This Systems Thinking workshop involved the implementation of eight main activities: issue prioritization, issue mapping systemigram, strategy prioritization, evidence prioritization, stakeholder and idealized evidence network mapping, evidence ecosystem relationship analysis, mapping critical success factors, and research contextualization. A...

International Publications

This study intends to identify existing permeability pathways between post-secondary education and training in Cambodia and to highlight hindrances that hamper the smooth permeability between the two systems. Adopting a hybrid process, the study combines both inductive and deductive thematic analysis approaches in coding transcribed interviews at 1...

Working Papers 133

Strengthening the quality of education, science and technology education is one of the four strategic rectangles of Rectangular Strategy Phase IV and at the heart of Cambodia’s ambition to achieve higher-middle-income status by 2030 and high-income status by 2050. To that end, increasing attention has been paid to improving both the quantity and qu...


The innovation and entrepreneurial activities have multiplied recently, with many new companies emerging in various industries. However, start-ups face many challenges, such as access to talent, idea, markets, and funding. Creating new idea or launching business is essential to have partners that can stimulate their thoughts and elevate both ca...


The ASEAN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation (COSTI) works to leverage Science & Technology to address common problems faced in the ASEAN region and to raise the level of scientific and technological advancement in ASEAN Member States (AMS). The work of the Committee is guided by the ASEAN Plan of Action on Science, Technology & Innova...


This is a part of the Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education (SHARE), a five-year cooperative agreement with the University of Notre Dame (UND) supported by the USAID’s new Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation/Center for Education (DDI/EDU), to advance global education learning priorities to improve learning outcomes....


The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about educational disruptions from pre-school to higher education in Cambodia and around the world. Although the impact of the pandemic in Cambodia was relatively low in comparison to other countries in the region and the world in 2020, and schools were able to reopen its door again in early 2021, the February 20,...


Under the Capacity Building Research and Development Fund of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, United Nation Development Programme, Cambodia and the Russian Federation, the Cambodia Development Resource Institute in collaboration with the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (formerly known as the National Institute of Posts, Telecoms...


This three-year programme is supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) through The Asia Foundation (TAF)’s Ponlok Chomnes Programme: Data and Dialogue for Development in Cambodia. In this programme CDRI aims at strengthening the capacity of knowledge-sector institutions to undertake quality research, informing publi...


Cambodia has achieved strong growth in the past two decades, and the country has graduated to lower-middle-income status with a per capita income of about USD1,215 (2015). A feat that neighbouring Vietnam achieved in 2010 and Laos in 2011. Building on this achievement, Cambodia aspires to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-inc...


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...