Funding as Soft Power: The Role of International Funding of Higher Education in Cambodia

Today we feature a conversation with Dr. Will Brehm, Associate Professor at the University College London and host of the FreshEd Podcast, about the role of international influence in the Cambodian higher education system. Dr. Brehm received his bachelor and master degrees from Lehigh University in the United States and completed his doctorate in International and Comparative Education at the University of Hong Kong. He has worked for universities in Japan and consulted for a number of NGOs and the World Bank on education in the southeast asian region. He is author of the book, Cambodia for Sale: Everyday Privatization in Education and Beyond . Other sources used by the THESIS producers for this episode:  Brehm, W. (2019). Chapter 12: Cambodian Higher Education Governance: The Politics of Global Summitry and Clientelism. In: D. S. L. Jarvis & K. H. Mok (Eds.) Transformations in Higher Education Governance in Asia: Policy, Politics and Progress (pp. 229-243). Hong Kong, China: Springer. Edwards, D. B., Brehm, W. C., & Storen, I. (2018). The national politics of educational advocacy in the context of global governance: international funding and support for civil society engagement in Cambodia. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 48(2), 171-188.  Sen, Vicheth. (2019). Hybrid governmentality: higher education policymaking in post-conflict Cambodia. Studies in Higher Education, 44(3), 513-525. DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2017.1379985.