MoU between SBU and ICCR Has Been Renewed

SBU and ICCR delegations, Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh: Preah Sihanoukrāja Buddhist University (SBU) represented by Ven. Prof. Dr Khy Sovanratana, Acting Rector, and Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) represented by H.E. Ms Manika Jain, Indian Ambassador to Cambodia, signed a renewed MoU between the two institutions on July 8, 2019. 

According to the MoU, ICCR agrees to send an Indian Professor to be Chair of Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies at SBU annually.

SBU has a good relationship with ICCR. In 2016, the Council of the University had unanimously decided to confer the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (D. Lit) upon Prof. Lokesh Chandra, President ICCR in recognition of his immense scholarship, vast experiences and great contributions to the fields of linguistics, culture and social advancement in India and in the world. The Degree was presented by His Holiness, Samdech Tep Vong, the great Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia at a conferring ceremony held today on 10 May at Chaktomukh Conference Centre, Phnom Penh.

After signing the MOU, H.E. Ms Amb Manika Jain and Ven. Dr Khy Sovanratana discussed future cooperation plans between the university and ICCR chair in the field of Sanskrit and Buddhist studies in Cambodia.

Notably, ICCR is an Indian government organisation under the Ministry of External Affairs which annually provides various scholarships to Cambodian students to pursue their higher education in Indian universities. According to H.E. Ms Manika Jain, ICCR provided 25 scholarships a year for undergraduate and postgraduate studies and research.

However, due to some uninformed reasons, a number of students that were admitted to Indian universities are lower than the provided number. Hence, necessary action should be taken by the concerned authority in order that Cambodian students could come to study in India as many as the number of scholarships ICCR has provided.