Rany Sam
@nubb.edu.kh
Faculty of Arts, Humanity, and Education
National University of Battambang (NUBB)
Dr. Sam Rany is the Vice-Rector of the National University of Battambang (NUBB), a public university located in northwestern Cambodia. He has been with NUBB since 2008 and assumed his current role in 2017. Since 2019, he has also served as the Cambodian Director of the Confucius Institute at NUBB. In 2016, Sam Rany earned a Ph.D. in Education from the School of Educational Studies at the University of Science Malaysia (USM). He later completed a Diploma in Public Administration at the Royal School of Administration, Cambodia, in 2017, followed by Leadership and Innovation Programs at the same institution in 2022. He holds both a bachelor's and a master's degree in law (LL.B & from the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), Cambodia, graduating in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Additionally, he is actively involved in various international projects, including Erasmus+, KOICA, JICA, USAID, and the World Bank. He currently serves as the NUBB project coordinator for HEIP.
EDUCATION
February 2018: International Certificate on Practitioner Project Management (PRINCE2) from the Global Best Practice, United Kingdom
2016-2017: Diploma of Public Administration for High-Ranking Officer’s Professional Improvement Program at the Royal School of Administration (RSA), Cambodia; my internship report is “The Study of Port Operation Services at the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port”.
2011-2015: PhD in Education, School of Educational Studies, University of Science, Malaysia (USM), Malaysia; my research topic is “The Influence of Institutional Factors and Integrations towards Students’ Intellectual Development: A Case Study of Three Cambodian Public Universities”.
2004-2007: Master of Law (, specializing in International Business Law and Corporate Counsel at the Faculty of Law, Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), Cambodia.
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Law, Education, Language and Linguistics, Business and International Management
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Chandarey Vong, Rany Sam, and Seth So
Sanata Dharma University
This study aims to explore students’ perceptions of factors influencing pronunciation. The study was designed quantitatively. The purposive sampling method was used, and 50 Cambodian EFL students at the National University of Battambang were selected as the sample. The questionnaire was designed in a semi-structured format. The data was analyzed by SPSS. The result showed that most participants believed learning English from a young age leads to better pronunciation. Interestingly, it indicated that the mother tongue (Khmer) influences English pronunciation since learners find it difficult to produce some sounds, especially the /th/sh/f/v/ sound in English, as these sounds do not exist in the sound system of Khmer. Additionally, the majority of the respondents believed that being exposed to an English-speaking environment, including real communication with English native speakers or access to English-speaking learning media, can enhance pronunciation. Last but not least, it was also assumed that feedback on pronunciation errors and motivation contribute to a positive learning process. Therefore, this study provides insight into effective pronunciation instruction.
Rany Sam, Morin Tieng, Hak Yoeng, Ry Hour, and Chiv Sarith
IGI Global
In Cambodia, as in many ASEAN countries, private supplementary tutoring, also known as 'shadow education,' is a significant component of the educational landscape. This chapter examines the root causes of shadow education in Cambodia, the challenges it poses, and the effectiveness of existing policies aimed at regulating this sector. Through semi-structured interviews with 21 principals and teachers, the study identifies key drivers of shadow education, including inadequate formal education, insufficient resources, regulatory gaps, and teachers' low salaries. The findings indicate a widespread reliance on private tutoring to compensate for these deficiencies, which exacerbates educational inequalities. The chapter concludes with targeted recommendations for students, parents, educators, and policymakers, underscoring the critical need for robust and effective regulatory frameworks to address the challenges of shadow education and to enhance the quality and equity of Cambodia's educational system.
Jackie Ravet, Peter Mtika, Amy McFarlane, Catriona MacDonald, Bunlee Khun, Vandy Tep, Rany Sam, and Hak Yoeng
Elsevier BV
Rany Sam, Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain, Hazri Bin Jamil, Thongma Souriyavongsa, and Le To Do Quyen
Canadian Center of Science and Education
The Malaysian government aims to help the bottom billion countries, which are its neighbouring countries in the South East Asian region, for their human capital development through providing university postgraduate scholarship projects. Those countries include Cambodia, Laos PDR, Burma or Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV), which are favourite countries for its technical assistance. Due to the countries’ various educational systems, postgraduate students have experienced some academic difficulties during their studies and research in Malaysian universities. A qualitative research method is employed to investigate students’ living strategies, perception of academic success, and academic adjustment problems in a Malaysian university. Research samples were conducted conveniently selected from a total of 17 students made up of 6 Cambodian, 4 Laotian, 2 Myanmar, and 5 Vietnamese postgraduate students (47, 05% females and 52, 94% males) who have studied in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) so called the Research University in the academic year 2012/2013, where they have attended the schools of educational studies, social science, and materials and mineral resource engineering. The result showed that the most difficult problem in term of academic adjustment which is English language difficulty in their new learning environment. In order to remedy such matters, they must strive to study hard, to improve English proficiency, and to make good relations with their academic staff, thesis supervisors, and other postgraduate students. In other words, social adjustment is considered as one of the important strategies that enable them to cope with the context of Malaysian culture. Based on the findings, the researchers provide recommendations to facilitate CLMV students to make better adjustments in a Malaysian research university and to achieve their academic endeavour.
Thongma Souriyavongsa, Mohamad Jafre Zainol Abidin, Rany Sam, Leong Lai Mei, and Ithayaraj Britto Aloysius
Canadian Center of Science and Education
This paper aims to investigate learning English strategies and the requirement of English needs of the undergraduate students at the National University of Laos (NUOL). The study employed a survey design which involved in administering questionnaires of rating scales, and adapting the items from (Barakat, 2010; Chengbin, 2008; Kathleen A, 2010; Patama, 2001; Richards, 2001), to measure learning English strategies and the needs of English skills from 160 Lao undergraduate students of NUOL. The findings of this study revealed that speaking skill was the most important skills that students needed to improve in their undergraduate program. All participants reported a medium frequency use of strategy on learning English. The most frequently used strategies involved in using vocabulary books and electronic dictionaries to remember new English words. Based on the research findings, the researchers provided some recommendations for course developers to be reconsidered and redesigned the curriculum and syllabus including the instructional materials, learning behaviours and learning strategies of the English courses in all faculties in order to enhance the quality of learning and teaching activities as well as to meet the learners’ needs and social demands for their prospective careers and country’s development.
Rany Sam, Thongma Souriyavongsa, Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain, Hazri Jamil, Xiaojuan Wu, and Seng Sovath
Canadian Center of Science and Education
The Cambodian government aims to promote students’ academic success in the country’s tertiary education. In order to reach this goal, it is important to explore possible potential factors that determine the educational attainment of Cambodian students. There has been no previous research on students’ academic success in Cambodian higher learning institutions, while this topic has been widely researched in the United States and some developed countries since the 1970’s. Accordingly, a number of research models have been developed by famous scholars to determine institutional factors which lead to the outcome of better academic performance in post secondary education. Therefore, this paper intends to conceptualize the academic experiences connected to existing institutional policies for contributing to the enhancement of students’ academic success in the specific context of Cambodian higher education institutions. In this paper, Astin’s theory (1984, 1993, 1999) and a Tinto’s theory (1975, 1993) are employed to link the concept of institutional policies and Cambodian students’ academic success because they model the relationship between institutional experiences of students, which are deemed to be relevant to the current status of Cambodian educational policies. Based on these concepts, this paper will propose ten variables as predicting factors that influence institutional policies toward students’ academic success and will design a conceptual model to elaborate this influence within the Cambodian educational system. Thus, this model to predict students’ academic success is proposed as a result of a literature review among the relationships of theoretical model of student input (pre-entry attributes), academic environment (institutional experiences and policies), and students’ academic success. Based on these relationships, ten propositions are developed.