International Relations Office

The Saint Paul Institute (SPI) is the only Catholic Education Institution in Cambodia, founded in 2009 by H.E Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler, Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh, Founder and currently Chancellor of SPI.

Since 2009 up until now, SPI gave scholarships and full-fee paying in Cambodia almost a thousand of students. More than 90 % of scholarship students are not Catholic. They were coming from different religions and backgrounds. SPI is unique in Cambodia for offering specialist degrees in fields including Agronomy, Information Technology, Tourism Management, English Literature, and Social Work. 

SPI is developing at both the national and international levels. We are not working alone in the academic field for development, but we are working in partnership with other international Institutions. In fact, SPI is the only Education Institution from Cambodia with full membership in the Association of Southeast and East Asian Catholic Colleges & Universities (ASEACCU), which granted full membership to 82 Catholic universities. Through ASEACCU and strong networking we are having good cooperation with some universities in Asian such as Australia, Philippine, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, and Indonesia.

On the other hand, SPI has built the International linkage by using the Catholic Church Agency as well as Social Development. In this context, we have collaboration and networking with some universities from ITALY, Germany, Tanzania, France, and Singapore. Meanwhile, we have good collaborations both local and international organizations as well as entrepreneurs and Embassy in Cambodia.

Furthermore, since November 19, 2019, SPI has nominated as a full member of International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU) where is a large IFCU family of 230 Catholic Universities all over the world.  SPI able to promote common research projects amongst Catholic higher education institutions and is to contribute to the progress of knowledge and its applications and to the development of a more just and human world in the light of reason and faith through. I am believing that international collaboration with the esteemed IFCU, our SPI students will benefit tremendously. They can learn from other cultures, share ideas with others, and most importantly, learn to be a better person through international collaborations and cultural exchange.

Base on experiences and activities we have done so far, I am strongly believing that the International Relations Affairs at Saint Paul Institute brings faculty, department, and students together in courses to research that fundamentally strive to create better education and academic. At the same time, a crucial strategic concern for Saint Paul Institute (SPI) is how to respond effectively to the quality of education at the national level, region, and global as well as sustainability to the future. In other words, SPI has specific objectives of the Catholic Institute to stimulate the standards of teaching, research, graduate and professional programs, and work of its faculty and staff. 

On the other hand, I would like to say that the aim of SPI’s international affairs is to conduct an initial step of collaborations and networking from your university or institution to Saint Paul Institute (SPI). Saint Paul Institutes is still young and small but we keep up our commitment to improving and process of defining its long-term strategy, where both Catholic identity and internationalization are recognized as important strategic goals.  

I also would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the collaboration we have been building with these Institutes, Universities, and organization overseas, some of our students had the opportunity to go abroad to Korea to continue their Master Degree, to Australia, Italy, Germany, and Tanzania as part of Exchange Programs, to the Philippines and to Thailand to join different workshops and training program. Indeed during that time spent abroad, our students were able to gain invaluable experience for many reasons: not only they could learn about cultures other than their own, taking away a better understanding and appreciation of their host country's culture and history, but they also experienced a different style of education, built relationships and friendships with students and others from their host country and had the chance to develop skills with communication, international experience, and flexibility.

PHON SOPHAL

Director - Responsible for International Relations