Higher education in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: a profile and some contemporary challenges

To date little scholarly attention has been given to the higher education system in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). This paper addresses the gap by providing a profile of the system and a review of its contemporary challenges. Particular attention is paid to issues of governance, finance and quality. Given the dominance within the system of the National University of Laos (NUOL), and the fact that there is so little data available generally about the system, much of the paper focuses on NUOL. Keywords: Lao PDR, higher education, governance, finance, quality, National University of Laos