UTSA forms research partnerships with Cambodian universities

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has formed relationships with two Cambodian universities that will allow faculty and staff at all three schools to collaborate in research, teaching and study abroad programs.

UTSA formed partnerships with Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia’s first and largest university, and Pannasastra University. Pannasastra is a private university that was opened in 2000 by a group of Cambodian Americans who fled the country because of the genocide that took place during the 1970s. However, they decided to return home with advanced degrees to start the university.

The collaborative efforts between the universities began earlier this year when UTSA associate professor of bicultural-bilingual studies, Wayne Wright, traveled on a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at RUPP in the master of education program.

Wright, who is fluent in Cambodian, says he chose the country in order to contribute to the rebuilding of the education system devastated by genocide and decades of civil war. Additionally, he was able to introduce his children to the Cambodian language, history and culture and reconnect with his wife’s family who live near the capital.

Wright will be supervising five master’s students working on their theses at RUPP and will be finishing up a research project that he started with one of the faculty members there.

“My hope is to find funding to support a big collaborative research project related to teacher training in Cambodia that can involve all three universities,” Wright says.

UTSA president Ricardo Romo says agreements like these are important for UTSA students.

“We would be left behind if we didn’t try to be a bit more proactive in setting up programs that would allow the students to see other parts of the world,” Romo says. “We need to take advantage of these kinds of connections with other universities and let our students reap the benefits of those kinds of networks.”