Background
Build Bright University (Ratanakiri Campus), located in Banlung Town of Ratanakiri Province, is one of the nine campuses of Build Bright University operating in Cambodia. This campus, which is fully recognized by Prakah no. 562 of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, has started its academic activities since 2003 in order to offer higher education and vocational training services to students in the north-east provinces, such as Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, Mondulkiri, and Kratie. Based on the population's need in those provinces, we are offering different levels of education ranging from vocational trainings to Bachelor degrees, and the campus has two faculties-Faculty of Business Management and Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality. The university campus is in the town center with the spacious compound of nearly 10,000 m2 with the lake view and the well-equipped building, which is very comfortable and convenient.
Geographical location
Ratanakiri is situated on the north - east plateau, 636 Km from Phnom Penh. It is bordering Vietnam on the east, Laos PDR on the North, Stung Treng on the West and Mondulkiri on the South with two rivers crossing the province ( Sre Pork and Sesan River ). A lightly populated province, it is renowned for its unique natural beauty and wealth of natural resources. The physical and environmental characteristic of the province forms an impressive range including undulating hills and mountains, a level plateau, watershed lowlands, crater lakes, rivers and waterfalls. Forest cover varies from area to area, from the dense impenetrable forest in the north, which are still rich in wildlife, to the drier and sparser forest, found in the southwest. Similarly, the soil types present range from rich volcanic soil to the sandy soil found near the rivers. Thus, Ratanakiri province offers wonderful opportunities for eco-tourism and agro-industrial plantations in Cambodia.
Ratanakiri province has approximately 100,000 inhabitants. Over 75% of the population of Ratanakiri belong to ethnic minorities (Highlanders) who for centuries have made their living in and around the forest. Tampuen, Jarai and Kreung are the largest ethnic groups in this province.Khmers make up only 25% and are recent immigrants from the lowlands. Not only are highland minority cultures distinct from mainstream Khmer culture, their languages are distinct as well. With the exception of Jarai, most of the languages belong to the Mon-Khmer group. These people clear the forest for farming and collect subsistence products such as fuel wood, medicine, food, and construction materials. Ethnic minorities, elephants,waterfalls and jungle combine to make this one of the most popular provinces in the northeast of Cambodia.
Due to its unique location and geography, Ratanakiri is full of economic potential and opportunity that serves as important elements to develop the national economy. Underground and on land resources are gold, gem stone, granite, onyx, fertile red soil, water sources ( home of wild animals ), luxury and quality wood and above all, the beautiful weather with fresh and pure air, and yearly rain. Rubber used to be a large industry up here and now it is still the dominant plantation after cashew nut plantation on the rich red soil throughout the province. Moreover, gem mining and eco-tourism are becoming the lifeblood of the province, and in the long run, tourism is the big future due to the multi-ethnic cultures and the abundant natural attractions, such as
Virachey National Park, Volcanic Crater Lake-Yake Loam, numerous waterfalls, wildlife sanctuary, and beautiful landscapes.
Because of the great potentiality and opportunity in the northeast region provinces, Build Bright University decided to locate one of its campuses in Ratanakiri in order to contribute and strengthen the human resource development with the Royal Government of Cambodia in the areas that are full of different ethnic minority groups. This campus serves as the training center in vocational training to mix of groups of people, the research center for the northeast region, and the academic center for higher education servicing to all groups of students, especially for women, girls, the poor and the underprivileged, who cannot afford to earn degrees in Phnom Penh.
Administrators
Build Bright University Ratanakiri Campus is run and managed by a Campus President and two Vice Presidents-Vice President for Academic Affairs and Vice President for Administration and Finance. Totally, there are 11 staff (04 females) working full-time in 04 different offices: Academic and Vocational Training Office, Administrative and Finance Office,
Foundation Year Department, and Students' Affairs Office.
The Campus President oversees and monitors all of the campus affairs under the support and assistance of the two vice presidents. The Vice-President in Administration and Finance controls and manages the work processes in the Administrative and Finance Office, which is being operated by 04 staff (03 females) ; moreover, the Vice-President in Academic Affairs is responsible for the Academic and Vocational Training Office, which is supported by 2 staff (01 female) 21 and 11 lecturers in the Faculty of Business Administration and the others 6 teachers in vocational training program. Additionally, in Foundation Year Department, there is one staff for coordinating foundation year work with other offices in order to conform with the requirement of Accreditation Committee of Cambodia (ACC). Also, in order to support students in sports, health care services, job search and employment, and academic consultation, the campus has a Student's Affairs Office that is managed by one staff.
To sum up, there are 04 offices in BBU Ratanakiri campus, which are working together closely, and they are the
backbone to support the students and the teaching staff.
Education Focus
Based in the multi-ethnic minority region with the unique distinction from the other campuses, the education program in the Ratanakiri Campus is also adapted and designed distinctively. The teaching curriculum and education programs have been designed to fully fit and suit the market need and demand. And so far, there have been two faculties running in the Ratanakiri Campus-the Faculty of Business
Management and Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality.
The fields in the Faculty of Business Management are Accounting, Finance and Banking, Marketing, Economics, Program and Project Development, International Business Management, Management and Leadership, Agro-business Management, and Agro-industry. The fields in he Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality are Tourism Management, Hotel and Hospitality Management, Eco-tourism Management. In order to conform to the requirement of Accreditation Committee of Cambodia (ACC), the Ratanakiri Campus has started implementing its Foundation Year program since the academic year 2005-2006 and is recognized to issue the Foundation Year Certificates to the students upon completion of the program. Moreover, the curriculum and program of vocational training in computer and English are also specially designed to be used with the students in Ratanakiri as well. These programs also aim to support indigenous minority students in Ratanakiri who have limited access to opportunities to further their educational development, so they are able to integrate into the social mainstream of workforce and working environment. These well-designed programs and curriculums will offer the students more opportunity to be employed in the workforce environment at the present time and in the future.
Enrollments
Since the first academic year of 2003-2004, the Ratanakiri Campus has offered the education service to more than 300 students in both Associate and Bachelor Degrees studying in the Faculty of Business Management. In this academic year 2006-2007, there are 83 students enrolled in the Faculty of Business Management, in which 20 students are in ABA program.