Barriers and Motivations for Female Students at Tertiary Education in Cambodia: A Case Study of a University in Phnom Penh

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
According to the census which was conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia (NIS) in 2008, it was revealed that females accounted for 51% of Cambodia’s total population. In 2009 and 2010 only 18% of Cambodian women enrolled in postgraduate degrees, compared with total enrolment (MoEYS, 2011). Why has these happened? What are the factors that influence this result? From my own observation at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) in the master degree in education (MEd) in cohort 6; a researcher sees clearly that only 39% in researcher’s classroom are women. Similarly, in cohort 7, which is a new cohort, enrolled in academic year 2013 in the same program only 16% of Cambodian women enrolled in the postgraduate degree. It is clear that this is unevenness in number of Cambodian female students enrolling in post graduate study. This has long term consequences for the development of Cambodia.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Females play a critical role in society in order to contribute to develop a nation. According to Ministry of Women’s Affair (2009) wrote in five years strategic plan called Neary Rattanak III that women are economic and social backbone. Therefore, pushing women to reach higher education is the important tasks for government and relevant stakeholders have to do. However, females in higher education in Cambodia especially graduate or postgraduate level are still limited. These have resulted from certain factors such as gender, finance, family background and cultural factors.
2.1 Gender
Southeast Asian countries structure with multi pictures of gender gap in access to tertiary education. In many countries, females have been under-represented in tertiary education. Berggren (as cited in Lin, 2011) indicated that in belief of the restrictions of gender role anticipation and social norm, females are low educational aspiration to pursue tertiary education than males. According to Lee (1998) illustrated that female students made up only 32% of the total higher education enrollment during 1994 in Indonesia. The Republic of Korea, Japan and the Pacific Islands have the best female gross tertiary enrollment ratios, followed by Thailand, the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines. However, there were huge gender differences in Cambodia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Nepal (Ramachandran, 2010). Figure 1 shows the percentage of the female students access tertiary education in Asean countries in 2010. Based on this figure illustrated the percentage of female students have attended higher education was almost balanced such as Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore. Instead, Cambodia has still substantial gender disparities. Particularly, female students in tertiary education comprise only about 35% of total enrolment. These gender disparities may be traced to earlier levels of schooling. The dropout rates of girls in Cambodia are higher than boys at all levels of education, which limits the pool of female candidates, are able to access tertiary education (Velasco, 2004). However, in order to promote gender equity, Cambodia has set up many national mechanisms such as Ministry of Women Affair (MoWA), the technical Working Group on Gender (built in 2004 and supervised by MoWA, with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and UNDP as co-coordinators), the Cambodia National Council for Women (ADB, 2012). Furthermore, Cambodian government also passed many essential policies and laws, for instance, the convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women, the law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims in 2005 and the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2006-2009 was about gender mainstreaming as strategic to all sectors.
Figure 1
Percentage of Females at Tertiary Education in ASEAN Countries, 2007
Figure is deleted
Note: This Data are collected from EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010 (UNESCO, 2011).
2.2 Barriers to Access Tertiary Education
This section examines some of the barriers and other factors which affect women attend graduate or post graduate study. There are four factors that this section examines such as personal factor, financial barriers, family background and cultural factors (World Bank, 2009).
2.2.1 Personal Factor
Factor that influences the female students’ aspiration to pursue post-graduate or graduate education is female students themselves. According to Lin (2011) found that there were many reasons that resulted from female students low expectation for tertiary education. First, she found that female students did not attract with research work, while post-graduate degree was completed by doing research, and this degree normally orientated to research job as well. Next, she found that female students were lack of self-confidence in educational capability that induced them low or nonexistent expectation for post-graduate degree. Finally, she found that female students were low expectation for higher education, because they were shortage of self-motivation for more studies.
2.2.2 Financial Barriers
Sami (as cited in World Bank, 2009) argued the studies on tertiary education equity in developed countries classify financial barriers in to three types: First the cost-benefit barrier, second, the cash-constraint or liquidity barrier and the last, the internalized liquidity constraint or the debt aversion barrier. Studies on higher education equity in Southeast Asia countries implicitly utilize those three types above. The studies have just analyzed how income level impact women’s access to tertiary education. Brock and Hsieh (2011) demonstrated that family size is an issue in the more dependents there were in the home; the more likely that home based work will be carried on. they were referring to the ability of a family to pay school fee in order to strengthen the capacity of survival both from the immediate income generation from home based work and from the possibility that some of the children, whether boy or girls, may proceed to more lucrative employment as a result of educational success. In an old study, conducted by Beswick and Boreham (1985) on the Australian system of tertiary education highlighted and made some interesting connections between parental attitudes and the presence or absence of financial assistance for female students. Moore (1987) stated that in general, women who accomplish and complete Australian tertiary education seem to have benefited more from external financial assistance than from familial aid.
Students from better economic backgrounds have better access to higher education than poor students. Ramachandran (2010) showed that some parents do not invest in the education of their daughters and in very poor households, girls are withdrawn from school. For example, a recent national economic survey in Indonesia indicated that one 3.3 % of students from the lowest, 20% income groups and only 4.8% enroll in universities. However, 30.9% from the highest income families were enrolled in higher education (Nizam, 2006).
2.2.3 Family Factors
Families play an indispensable role in sending their children to schools. Children are far more likely to attend university if one or both of their parents has completed a university degree. A recent Statistics Canada study found that youth whose parents have at least some university experience are close to twice as likely to attend university as those whose parents had completed only high school.
Parents play a critical role in encouraging their children to pursue higher education. Sewell and Shah (1968) indicated that parental encouragement seemed to have strongest influence on tertiary educational plans of female students. Furthermore, Mullent (as cited in Lin, 2011) illustrated that higher educational and higher socio-economic status parents are likely to have higher aspiration for their children’s education. This enabled children themselves to have higher expectation for higher educational attainment. Nevertheless, Christie and Munro (2003) found that poor educated and lower economic status parents tended to be lower expectation for their children to pursue tertiary education. Because they were not well-understood to provide good advice to their children, we compared to high-educated and higher socio-economic parents. Mullen, Goyette and Soares (2003) also found that parents’ education and socio-economic status were crucial impact to their children’s graduate program enrollment. These reveals that parental education and family socio-economic status are very closely link to their children’s aspiration.
Parental education and family income background also have positive effects on individual choice to enroll in higher education. It implies that parents with higher education or higher earnings intend to build better learning environments for children. They have stronger willingness to pay for higher education than parents with lower education and income background (Li & Min, 2001). Similar studies on higher education in advanced countries revealed that parental education or occupation impacts access to higher education in East Asian countries (Finnie, Laporte & Lascelles, 2004). They also found that family backgrounds tend to be a main determinant of access to higher education. Students whose parents are better educated or have professional occupations have better access to higher education. Similarly, Budria (as cited in Ogawa & Iimura, 2010) argued that parental level of education is related to the child’s choice of the type and length of his/her higher education.
According to Becker (1981), families invest in children’s education, but are constrained by economic and educational resources of the families. They invest if they have the resources to spend. Li and Min (2001) found that more importantly, the significance of these factors applies to developed countries like the United States of America and less developed countries with different cultural or economic structures.
Ding (2007) found that students whose fathers have professional or administrative jobs and ones who are from high income households have higher chance to enter higher education. However, Agadjanian and Liew (2005) stated that parental education has some significance impact on transition to tertiary in Malaysia. According to Huang (2005) argued that father’s education achievement and occupation were weakly negative impact on student academic accomplishment.
2.2.4 Cultural Factors.
The under-representation of female students in higher education may emerge from cultural and social factors. Females may have unequal educational opportunities because of cultural barriers. For example, Indonesian families traditionally arrange their daughters to get married as soon as they finish primary school (Suryadarma et al, 2006). In China son preference is still prevalent, because Chinese culture needs the son to carry the family lineage. Therefore, females are discriminated against and not offered equal education opportunities by their parents (Wang, 2005). Furthermore, other studies found that families in Western Europe and North American have tended to favor the attendance of male children rather than female children in tertiary education, particularly when a financial burden was involved (Moore, 1987).
Many people who live in Southeast Asian countries believe that females are more inferior than males are common. They have preconceived beliefs or ideas of women’s personality traits, characteristics, abilities and roles in society. Don (2001) argued that these beliefs are even reinforced in school textbooks in which women are supposed to look after housework and do manual work. Berggren (2006) stated women have been prepared from childhood to be caretakers for other members in family. This role is not only completed in their childhood but also continue to adult life when they get married. These women’s roles and accountabilities are the factors that minimize women’s aspiration to pursue higher education particularly post graduate degree (Lin, 2011).
From my own observation, some Cambodian females believe that too much education such as post graduate or graduate degree will prevent them from a suitable marriage. It means that they will not find a suitable partner. In Cambodian society, women are liable to get married with men with higher educational accomplishment than themselves, while men are likely to be married to women with lower educational achievement than themselves. These prevent females from enrolling in higher education. Another cultural practice that prevents some Cambodian female from pursuing tertiary education is that when females finish their undergraduate degree; they are expecting to get married then they continue their studies to postgraduate, but when they get married, burden of family are more added such as involving in taking care of their husband and children and household. Therefore, they have withdrew from studies.
2.3 Female Student’s Aspiration to Pursue Post-graduate Level of Education
According to business dictionary on Website the term motivation or aspiration means that internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal. Motivation or aspiration gives the basis powers that enable people to pursue success and it will impact individuals in the future to get successful or not. Students’ aspiration plays a crucial role in pursuing higher level of education. Moreover, Schoenfeld (as cited in Mark & Edgington, 2006) found that there are three main motivations for individuals considering to pursue graduate or post graduate school such as personal development, career switching and career enhancement. .
This section examines these three motivations that drive female students to pursue graduate or postgraduate level of study.
2.3.1 Career Advancement
Career Enhancement, which is portrayed by the demand of getting professional career needed for development, would help the respondent to maintain his/her position prosperously and compete with others in the business world. It is also a motivation that respondent tries to pursue in order to improve long term finance and financial security. Moreover, these individuals expect that a graduate or post graduate level of education will offer them the chance for more challenging and interesting job in future (Marks & Edington, 2006).
In order to improve income and financial stability, individuals are motivated by pursuit higher education especially graduate or post graduate level. Marks and Edington (2006) stated that financial stability could occur provided that individuals had ability to facilitate and improve economic process, manage risks and manage unexpected accidence. All these issues are not easy to manage; therefore, in order to manage these individuals have to pursue higher education. Moreover, Ellis, Pollock, Lopez and Perez-Quinones (2010) stated that pursuit graduate school will generally cause individuals to earn higher starting compensation at the initial of his or her career. According to National Science Foundation report (2006) revealed that graduates who were holding bachelor degree got an average salary $45,000 and those who were holding master degree got an average salary $65,000 and those who were holding a fresh graduate PhD got an average salary $89,000 for the position of assistant professor in nine months. Similarly, according to Born (2002) revealed that bachelor graduated students were earning in 1990 in Canada on average salary (38,000) five years later. For master graduated students were earning on the average salary (50,000) one third more than bachelor graduated students.
Another motivation factor for graduates is the increasing in the job opportunity in challenging working environment. Ellis, et al., (2010) explained that graduate school helped open up career path that was easy to obtain. They added that some jobs completely need advance degree. For instance, if individuals plan to teach or conduct research in an academic organization, PhD will require. Further, Master degrees are also critical in advance development work such as research work, project leadership. Even if graduate schools are not strict requirement for those positions, they are often viewing as prior criterion for job seekers in their applications.
Job promotion is another factor which motivates individuals to pursue graduate school. According to Teowkul, Seributra, Sangkaworn, Jivasantikarn, Denvilai and Mujtaba (2009) explained that people need job promotion because it is relevant to benefits such as higher salary, better benefits, more responsibility, possibilities for training and studies and improved workplace. Therefore, pursuit graduate program is unavoidable for individuals who want to seek these kinds of benefits.
2.3.2 Career Switching
Career switching relies on the desire of transition from one career path to another in order to let one switch occupational area (Marks & Edington, 2006; Teowkul et al., 2009). There are many factors which pull individuals to change their job such as to seek higher salary, career advancement, job security, more freedom, more respect and value, good reputation of organization and higher educational opportunity (Alishah, Fakhr, Ahmand & Zaman, 2010). These factors are individuals’ expectation that all expect to gain. However, if these factors are not met, job switching or job quitting will occur. Ntumba and McCain (2010) stated that individuals switched their job because in their former job did not meet their expectation.
2.3.3 Personal development
According to Jackson (1999) explained that personal development is utilized to emphasize the processes of learning activities that are undertaken by individuals to develop themselves. He also added that personal development was accepted by individuals to reflect upon their own learning, performance and or accomplishment and to plan for their personal educational and career advancement. Similarly, Marks and Edgington (2006) illustrated that personal development is differentiated by the desire to improve confidence in order to succeed, to gain respect from individual at workplace and to develop the skills that are essential for doing one’s job.
There are many motivational factors that push individuals to pursue graduate school in term of personal development such as to satisfy individual needs in self-improvement, to get more respect from others, to get more self-confidence, to accomplish educational goal and improve English skill (Teowkul et al., 2009).
Individuals desire to satisfy self-improvement or personal growth means that they desire to know and to understand that all are stated in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Model (Maslow, 1943). He added that acquiring knowledge has been reckoned as crucial for accomplishing the basic needs. Moreover, the desire to know and to understand is cognitive (Teowkul, et al., 2009)
Therefore, in order to meet these needs individuals are motivated by pursuit graduate or post graduate level.
To obtain more respect from others is another factor that motivates individuals to pursue graduate level. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs stated that all people have a need to feel respected, this involves the need of having self-esteem and self-respect (Maslow, 1943). He added that all the people become involved in a profession or hobby in order to obtain recognition, these offer person sense of contribution or value. He also continued that there two version of esteem needs such as low version and higher version. People with low self-esteem desire respect from others such as desire for status, fame, prestige, recognition, and attention. And people with high self-esteem have a desire for strength, mastery, self-confidence, competence, independence, and freedom (Maslow, 1943). Therefore, in order to obtain these, individuals are driven by pursuit graduate or post graduate level.
Another factor that individuals pursue graduate level is to gain more self-confidence. Satisfaction of the self-esteem desire leads to have feeling of self-confidence, capacity, strength, and worth, if individuals are welcomed in the academic environment and with academic environment, individuals can promote the building of a self-confidence and self-esteem rely on perceived development in performance (Teowkul et al., 2009). Therefore, individuals pursue higher education or graduate education in order to promote more confidence.
One more factor that drives individuals to continue their studies to graduate level is to accomplish an educational goal. Yorks stated (as cited in (Teowkul et al., 2009) that a set of knowledge, skills can help individual to be secure in choosing education and occupation to benefit themselves. Mujtaba and Presiosi (2006) emphasized that individuals understanding are crucial for reviewing, planning and taking responsibility for their own learning in order to encourage a positive attitude for learning in a full life, develop their general skills for learning and career management.
Another factor that motivates students or individuals to pursue graduate school is to enhance language skills. Non English students enroll in a graduate or postgraduate degree program in order to improve English skill especially writing, reading and speaking skill. All these skills are introduced in graduate degree program. Further, students who register in graduate program will have chance to reflect their own learning experiences, personal and educational development, personal strength and weakness, and manage for better employment and future promotion in their life (Teowkul et al., 2009)
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