Student demonstration in Phnom Penh

A dispute led to the confrontation between students and the management of the Phnom Penh Health Science University. The problem: a lower number of students were allowed to attend their first year of study.

About 200 demonstrators, all of them students, were standing in front of the entrance to their university since Wednesday 26 November. They denounced the fact that the university management reneged on its promises. The university promised to accept 1,000 out of the 1,500 students who are currently taking preparation classes. However, only 300 students were admitted this year.

A student denounced these false promises and she argued: “These results were announced late in the year. This prevented us from registering somewhere else in case of failure.” The students wished to see “an acceptable resolution to this problem.”

When reached over phone by Cambodge Soir Hebdo on Thursday 27 November, Oum Sophal, the dean of the university declared that: “up to now, no decision has been made yet. The management committee is currently holding a meeting to discuss this problem.”