researchreport-university students’ awareness and perception of foreign aids to cambodia
TRANSCRIPT
Students’ Awareness and Perception 1
University Students’ Awareness and Perception of Foreign Aids to Cambodia
Ky Sereyvuth Lee Sebin
Mean Vysonita Morm Kulkitya Sim Lyheang
Department of International Studies
IS303 Introduction to Research
Lecturer: Theam Sokvibol
January 26, 2014
Students’ Awareness and Perception 2
Abstract Foreign aid is an important issue in both developed and developing countries. The aim of this
study is to assess the level of awareness and perception of university students on foreign aid
in Cambodia. Self-completion questionnaires were given to university students chosen by
non-random sampling method at the Institution of Foreign Languages (IFL) and Institute of
Technology of Cambodia (ITC) to measure awareness and perception on foreign aid.
Students also answered on their preference of how foreign aid should be spent in the
education sector: whether to improve in quantity education or quality education. Findings
revealed that the level of awareness on foreign aid of Year 4 (senior) students was higher
compared to that of Year 1 (freshmen) students in both universities. Also, the level of
awareness on foreign aid of IFL students majoring in International Studies was higher than
that of ITC students majoring in Engineering. Students’ perceptions varied, as IFL and ITC
students had similar responses on some questions but different on others. Students from both
institutions had similar opinion on the amount of foreign aid spent on quantity education and
quality education. Our findings suggest that the level of awareness on foreign aid is generally
high and that education is considered as a priority for foreign aid spending.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 3
Contents
Acknowledgement .................................................................... 4 Introduction .............................................................................. 5 Literature Review ..................................................................... 5 Research Questions .................................................................. 7 Methods .................................................................................... 8 Finding ...................................................................................... 9 Discussion ................................................................................ 16 Limitation ................................................................................. 17 Conclusion ................................................................................ 18 References ................................................................................ 19 Appendix 1 ............................................................................... 21
Students’ Awareness and Perception 4
Acknowledgement
We owe a great many thanks to a great many people who helped and supported us during the
process of this research.
Our deepest thank to Lecturer, Theam Sokvibol, for guiding and correcting various
documents and works of us with attention and care. He has taken pain to go through the
project and make necessary correction as and when needed.
We express our thanks to the principal of Institution of Foreign Languages for giving this
subject, Research Methodology (IS303), and extending her support for this course. Without
this support, we would have been studied about the process of conducting a good research
project.
In addition, we would like to thank to our respondents from both Institute Foreign Languages
and Institute of Technology of Cambodia. Without such cooperation and participation from
them, this project would have been possible.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 5
Introduction Having experienced civil war for years, Cambodia is still one of the poorest countries in the
world. In 1993, the first national election was held, followed by $5 billion USD foreign aid
flowing into the country over the next decade (Ear, 2006). However, most of Cambodian
people are not privileged with education, and they often do not realize how foreign aids affect
their everyday lives. Many researches have been conducted on foreign aid in developed
countries. There are quite a number of literatures on foreign aid and public policy, but there
are limited literature on foreign aid and public opinion, and most of it is based on donor
perspectives like in Milner and Tingley did in their research (Milner & Tingley, 2013).
Consequently, this research is going to discuss about university students’ awareness and
perceptions of foreign aids to Cambodia depending on: different majors and education levels,
and their needs from foreign aids. To extend deeper to the following contents, the research’s
main objective is to find out how different majors of Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL)
(more specifically, the Department of International Studies; DIS) and Institute of Technology
of Cambodia (ITC) and education levels, focusing on freshmen (Year 1) and seniors (Year 4
or 5). Students’ awareness and perception and their needs from foreign aid alongside the
second Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is aiming to promote primary
education around the world, will be addressed.
Literature Review Public awareness and general knowledge of foreign aid in donor countries
In a study by Milner and Tingley (2013) of U.S. public opinion, 68% of respondents knew
the World Bank, whereas only 29% knew of USAID, though respondents with a 4-year
college degree had a higher rate of knowing USAID at 54% (Milner & Tingley, 2013).
Milner and Tingley (2013) did not conclude that Americans were simply ignorant, but
pointed out that further study is necessary in this field. Connolly, Doyle, and Dwyer (2008) in
their study on Irish university student opinions on development issues also asked students
whether they have heard of Irish Aid or not, and 72% of Irish university students responded
no.
In South Korea, Kwon and Park (2012) provide an overview of Korean public surveys on
development aid where almost half of the Korean respondents answered that they were aware
of Korean government’s ODA to developing countries. In the same study, 59% of the Korean
Students’ Awareness and Perception 6
public responded that they have never heard of MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).
Kwon and Park (2012) note “there was a correlation between the level of support and
awareness. Those who know better about MDGs tend to strongly support foreign aid” (Kwon
& Park, 2012, p.66).
Also, Action Aid UK (2007) conducted public polls in the United Kingdom which show that
the general public highly overestimate the percentage of foreign aid given by its government.
The average of all estimates in the poll was 18.55% when the actual figure of foreign aid
given by UK was 1.3% in 2006 (ActionAid UK, 2007).
Positive public perception on foreign aid
In Childfund Australia (2011)’s survey, two-thirds of Australian adults found that foreign aid
was improving the situation of children in developing countries (Childfund Australia,
2011).
When Irish university students were asked whether aid makes a difference to the lives of
people in developing countries, 63% responded that it makes ‘a little bit’ of difference while
24% responded that it makes ‘quite a lot of difference’. Only 5% of respondents answered
that aid does not make any difference to people in developing countries (Connolly, et al,
2008).
In terms of foreign aid support, McDonell, Lecomte, and Wegimont (2003) write that OECD
countries in general strongly support foreign aid. Support for the principle of helping
developing countries ranged from 70% to 95% among OECD countries (McDonell, et al.,
2003). In South Korea, 90% of respondents to public surveys strongly acknowledged the
importance of development aid as a donor country (Kwon & Park, 2012).
Many studies have asked about whether the amount of foreign aid should be increased or
decreased. In the South Korean public survey, over 70% of the respondents answered that
current ODA volume is either adequate or too little, and over 60% of the same respondents
answered that Korea should maintain or expand current ODA volume (Kwon & Park, 2012).
In the UK polls, when asked whether the UK government spends too much, too little, or
about the right amount on foreign aid, 72% of respondents answered that it is about right or
too little, calling on UK to continue its foreign aid assistance (ActionAid UK, 2007).
Students’ Awareness and Perception 7
Foreign aids focus on quality education
While the awareness and perception of university student on foreign aid are being discussed
in this research, the perception of university student on how foreign aids on education sector
should be spent among its subsector is also important for this research.
Traditionally, most donor agencies have prioritized their foreign aid for educational system to
the “Basic Education” and “Quantity of education”. These subsectors of education sector
have been a favorite for those donor agencies since all leaders of 189 countries met at United
Nation Headquarter in New York in September 2000 to endorse the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), which the second of the 8 goals is to achieve “Universal
Primary education” by year 2015. According to EFA (2005), more than 30% of foreign aid to
education is focused on “Basic education” and “quantity of education”, while the other part
such as “quality improvement”, “facilities donation” share only small percentage of foreign
aid to improve the overall level or quality of education. A recent study by Birchler and
Michaelowa (2012) reveals the positive correlation between the aid disbursement and
primary education enrolment, but reveals the negative correlation between the aid
disbursement and quality of education at higher level. In his research at 8 sub-Saharan
African countries, such as Mozambique, Kenya, and Malawi, the team has found that less
than 50% of children who spent five years in school were able to read few sentences
(Birchler and Michaelowa, 2012). They concluded that the increase of primary education
enrolment and quantity of education do not correspond with the increase of national reading
score and quality of education.
Research Questions
The main objective of conducting this research is to find out how different majors and
education levels students affect the awareness and perception on foreign aid of Cambodian
university students and if their needs from foreign aid are alongside the second goal of
achieving universal primary education among the 8 Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
Research Questions:
1) How do different majors affect university students’ awareness and perception of
foreign aid to Cambodia?
Students’ Awareness and Perception 8
2) How do different levels of education affect university students’ awareness and
perception of foreign aid to Cambodia?
3) Do university students want foreign aid on education sector to be focused more on
“Quantity Education” or “Quality of Education”?
Methods
This study aims to measure the awareness and perception of university students on foreign
aids based on two variables: majors and educational levels, and their needs from foreign aid.
Thus, it is appropriate to use non-experimental, cross-sectional design in this study due to the
short availability of time and resources as well as consistent responses of respondents.
In this study, self-completion questionnaires were utilized as the method of data collection
because it ensures anonymity, speedy collection of data. The questionnaires were divided into
four sections: respondents’ attribute information, their knowledge on foreign aid to Cambodia
to assess awareness, their perception on foreign aid to Cambodia, and their personal opinion
on how foreign aid in education sector should be distributed.
The population of this study undergraduate students of two different universities: students
from the Department of International Studies at Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal
University of Phnom Penh (Year 1 & Year 4) and students from the Institute of Technology
of Cambodia (Year 1 & Year 5). The sample of this study is selected based on year levels and
their majors by using non-random/non-probability sampling design, and quota sampling. Six
classes of Year 1 students (Two classes from Institute of Technology of Cambodia, four
classes from Institute of Foreign Languages), four classes of Year 4 students (from Institute
of Foreign Languages), two classes of Year 5 students (from Institute of Technology of
Cambodia) are selected as sample for conducting this study.
In the data collection process, the team members went to the twelve classes and provided
them the questionnaire. The respondents were asked to complete this questionnaire in about
ten to fifteen minutes. Finally, the team members collected the questionnaires immediately
after the respondents completed it. Once the questionnaires were gathered together, SPSS
was used to analyze the sample.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 9
Findings
High awareness of foreign aid among university students To access awareness of foreign aid, respondents were given a set of nine questions1 that
asked whether they knew aid agencies such as KOICA and JICA, other multilateral donors
such as the OECD and ADB, the amount of foreign aid received by Cambodia, the largest
donor countries to Cambodia, and where the foreign aid is spent.
Foreign aid awareness of IFL students higher than ITC students
(Figure 1: Awareness of foreign aid between IFL and ITC) IFL (Year 1 & 4) ITC (Year 1 & 5) Awareness Don’t
know Quite sure,
Know exactly Don’t know
Quite sure, Know exactly
(1.3) “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)” is the collection of many donor countries
44 (23.3%)
48 (25.4%)
39 (48.8%)
7 (8.8%)
(1.5) Cambodia has received foreign aid from many agencies including China, KOICA, JICA, ADB, WB
15 (7.9%)
89 (46.8%)
6 (7.4%)
20 (24.7%)
(1.8) Since 2011, China has been the biggest donor country to Cambodia, followed by Japan.
14 (7.4%)
85 (44.8%)
15 (18.5%)
18 (22.2%)
When comparing between majors of study, we divided IFL students and ITC students.
The results show that in eight questions out of nine, IFL students had more percentage of
students who answered that they were quite sure or knew exactly. Notably, 25.4% of IFL
students responded that they were quite sure or knew exactly about OECD as a donor,
whereas only 8.8% of ITC students answered the same way (1.3). Also when asked about
whether or not they knew Cambodia receives foreign aid from KOICA, JICA, ADB, and the
World Bank, only 24.7% of ITC students answered that they knew, whereas 46.8% of IFL
students knew (1.5). Finally, when asked whether they knew about China being the biggest
donor to Cambodia since 2011, 44.8% of IFL students were quite sure or knew exactly about
this fact, whereas only 22.2% of ITC students answered the same way (1.8). This finding
answers our first research question that different majors have different levels of awareness;
especially IFL students have more awareness than ITC students (Figure 1).
1 See Appendix 1.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 10
Awareness on foreign aid of Year 4 students at IFL more than Year 1 students at IFL
(Figure 2: Awareness of foreign aid comparison between IFL Year 1 and IFL Year 4) Year IFL Year 1 IFL Year 4 Awareness Don’t
know Quite sure,
Know exactly
Don’t know
Quite sure, Know exactly
(1.2) JICA is the Japanese aid Agency.
21 (17.8%)
45 (38.1%)
5 (6.9%)
41 (56.1%)
(1.3) “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)” is the collection of many donor countries
41 (35.0%)
13 (11.1%)
3 (4.2%)
35 (48.6%)
(1.5) Cambodia has received foreign aid from many agencies including China, KOICA, JICA, ADB, WB
11 (9.3%)
38 (32.2%)
4 (5.6%)
51 (70.9%)
(1.8) Since 2011, China has been the biggest donor country to Cambodia, followed by Japan.
12 (10.2%)
41 (34.8%)
2 (2.8%)
44 (61.2%)
Comparing responses between Year 1 and Year 4 students at IFL, Year 4 students were more
aware of foreign aid than Year 1 students across the board. Notably, 56.1% of Year 4
students answered that they were quite sure or knew exactly that JICA was the Japanese aid
agency, whereas only 38.1% of Year 1 students answered the same (1.2). Also, only 11.1%
percent of Year 1 students were aware of OECD as a multilateral donor, whereas almost half
(48.6%) of Year 4 students answered that they were quite sure or knew exactly (1.3). When
asked about whether or not they knew Cambodia receives foreign aid from KOICA, JICA,
ADB, and the World Bank, 70.9% of Year 4 students, as compared to 32.2% of Year 1
students, said they were quite sure or knew exactly about it (1.5). Finally, when asked
whether they knew about China being the biggest donor to Cambodia since 2011, 61.2% of
Year 4 students were quite sure or knew exactly about this fact, whereas only 34.8% of Year
1 students answered the same way (1.8). These results answer our second research question
that year levels affect students’ awareness on foreign aid in Cambodia. Year 4 students are
more aware of foreign aid in Cambodia than Year 1 students (Figure 2).
Students’ Awareness and Perception 11
Varying results among Year 1 students and Year 5 students at ITC
(Figure 3: Awareness of foreign aid between ITC Year 1 and ITC Year 5) Year ITC Year 1 ITC Year 5 Awareness Don’t
know Quite sure,
know exactly
Don’t know
Quite sure, Know exactly
(1.1) KOICA is the South Korean aid Agency.
13 (33.3%)
3 (7.7%)
17 (42.5%)
7 (17.5%)
(1.6) In 2012, Cambodia has received about US$1.38 billion in aid, which is equal to 9.8% of its total GDP.
13 (32.5%)
4 (10.0%)
20 (48.8%)
1 (2.4%)
Among ITC students, the level of awareness varied across the questions given, although
generally, seven out of nine questions revealed that Year 5 students had proportionately more
students knowing about foreign aid. However, when asked about whether they knew KOICA
was the Korean aid agency, 42.5% of Year 5 students responded that they did not know
compared to 33.3% of Year 1 students (1.1). In other words, there were more Year 5 students
who did not know this compared to Year 1 students. Similarly, when asked about foreign aid
Cambodia received as a percentage to its GDP, 48.8% of Year 5 students answered that they
did not know about this fact compared to only 32.5% of Year 1 students who answered that
they did not know (1.6). Additionally, for the same question asked, only 2.4% of Year 5
students answered that they were quite sure or knew exactly about the information, where as
10.0% of Year 1 students answered the same way (1.6). Contrary to our findings among IFL
students, ITC students showed only a minor difference in awareness between Year 1 and
Year 5 students. These results, combined with the results of the first research question,
suggest that IFL and ITC students have different levels of awareness due to their majors
(Figure 3).
(Figure 4: Awareness between Year 1 & Year 4,5 (both IFL & ITC))
Year Year 1 Year 4,5 Don’t
know Quite sure
Know exactly
Don’t know
Quite sure Know exactly
(1.1) KOICA is the South Korean aid Agency.
82 (52.2%)
17 (10.8%)
41 (36.9 %)
28 (25.2%)
Students’ Awareness and Perception 12
(1.3) “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)” is the collection of many donor countries
58 (36.9%)
15 (9.5%)
25 (22.5%)
39 (35.1%)
(1.5) Cambodia has received foreign aid from many agencies including China, KOICA, JICA, ADB, WB
13 (8.2%)
45 (28.5%)
8 (7.1%)
36 (56.2%)
(1.6) In 2012, Cambodia has received about US$1.38 billion in aid, which is equal to 9.8% of its total GDP.
66 (41.8%)
10 (6.3%)
33 (29.5%)
14 (12.5%)
(1.8) Since 2011, China has been the biggest donor country to Cambodia, followed by Japan.
19 (12.0%)
47 (29.8%)
10 (8.9%)
55 (49.2%)
Overall, between Year 1 and Year 4,5 students, the senior year students had higher
percentage of awareness across all 9 questions, showing that year level indeed affects
awareness (Figure 4).
Students’ Perception on Foreign Aid (IFL and ITC):
Respondents were asked eighteen questions in order to access their perception on foreign aid.
Not all of the questions are mentioned here because we only choose questions that have the
most significant information prior to our research questions2.
(Figure 5: Perception on foreign aid by major) Perceptions of Students IFL ITC
Agree Disagree Agree Disagree Foreign aid help to develop poor countries: increase public spending, increase investment, increase jobs, etc. (Perception 1)
174 (91.6%)
13 (6.9%)
69 (86.3%)
11 (13.8%)
Foreign aid reduces recipient countries’ reputation on international arena. (Per. 5)
55 (30%)
88 (46.3%)
36 (45.6%)
25 (31.6%)
Foreign aid may reduce government of poor countries’ incentive to develop their countries because when their countries become developed countries, the amount of foreign aid will be reduce. (Per. 8)
119 (62.5%)
56 (29.5%)
60 (75%)
14 (17.5%)
2 See Appendix 1.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 13
Should government ask for more or to reduce foreign aid to Cambodia?
IFL ITC
Increase 62 (33.2%)
39 (50.6%)
Stay the same 91 (48.7%)
26 (33.8%)
Reduce 34 (18.2%)
12 (15.6%)
Sectors that foreign aid should focus on: IFL ITC Reduce extreme poverty and hunger 3.64 4.57 Education 2.1 1.92 Health 4.11 3.3
*Note: the number on the last table was indicated by average mean from the order of importance ranging from the most important to the least important (1-9). IFL and ITC students’ perception based on different universities:
On the idea that foreign aid help to develop poor countries, most of IFL students agree by
91.6%. Similar to IFL students, ITC students also agree on this perception by 86.3%.
However, if we compare to the idea that foreign aid reduce recipient countries’ reputation, it
is different that IFL students tend to disagree with this perception by 46.3% since 23.7% of
IFL students have no idea on this. ITC students as the whole tend to agree on this perception
by 45.6%, but there is significant notable event between fifth year and first year ITC students.
Fifth year ITC students, on the other hand, tend to disagree on this perception by 42.5% while
first year ITC students agree on this idea by 61.5%. Moreover, more than half of the
respondents tend to agree on the idea that foreign aid may reduce governments of poor
countries’ incentive to develop their countries. To be specific, IFL students and ITC students
agree on this idea by 62.5% and 75% respectively. Last but not least, almost half (48.7%) of
IFL respondents think that government of Cambodia should keep foreign aid to Cambodia at
the same amount while 50.6% of ITC respondents think that foreign aid to Cambodia should
be increased (Figure 5).
Overall, most of the respondents want foreign aid to contribute to education sector rather than
any other sectors following by promoting health care and reducing poverty. According to our
finding, all of the respondents have rated education sector in the order of importance ranging
from the most important to the least important (1-9) at the average mean 2.06, which is the
lowest mean among all the sectors have been listed in the questionnaire. In health sector, on
the other hand, has the second lowest average mean at 3.64 while aid that is used for reducing
poverty and hunger has 4.37 (Figure 5).
Students’ Awareness and Perception 14
(Figure 6: Perception on foreign aid by year level) Foreign aid help to develop poor countries: increase public spending, increase investment, increase jobs, etc. (Perception 1)
DK SA A
Year 1 2 (1.3%)
30 (19.1%)
114 (72.6%)
Year 4, 5 1 (0.9%)
34 (30.4%)
64 (57.1%)
Foreign aid reduces recipient countries’ reputation on international arena. (Perception 5)
DK SA A
Year 1 42 (26.8%)
11 (7%)
47 (29.9%)
Year 4, 5 21 (18.9%)
11 (9.9%)
24 (21.6%)
Foreign aid may reduce government of poor countries’ incentive to develop their countries because when their countries become developed countries, the amount of foreign aid will be reduce. (Perception 8)
DK SA A
Year 1 17 (10.8%)
15 (9.6%)
83 (52.9%)
Year 4, 5 4 (3.6%)
11 (9.8%)
69 (61.6%)
(Figure 7: Perception on foreign aid by year level: Should foreign aid increase?) Aid to Cambodia
Increase Stay the same
Reduce
Year 1 55=35.3% 78=50% 23=14.7% Year 4, 5 46=43% 39=36.4% 22=20.6%
IFL and ITC students’ perception based on their year level (Y1 & Y4, 5) (Both IFL and
ITC)
On the idea that foreign aid help to develop poor countries (perception 1), on the data we
have collected show that different year level does not affect their perception on this idea.
Furthermore, for the perception 5 that foreign aid reduces recipient countries’ reputation,
different year level affects their perception. As shown on the table above, students who study
in first year tend to agree in term of number more than students who study in fourth and fifth
year. The same to the first perception, different year level does not affect perception 8. For
the question that ask respondents to suggest their idea on how should the government keep
the amount of foreign aid, half of first year students want government to keep the amount of
foreign aid at the same level while almost half of fourth and fifth year want to increase the
amount of foreign aid (Figure 6, 7).
Students’ Awareness and Perception 15
IFL and ITC students’ perception and their awareness
As already mentioned above, generally IFL students are aware of foreign aid than ITC
students. Therefore, we assume that students who are more aware of foreign aid tend to think
that government of Cambodia should keep foreign aid to Cambodia at the same amount while
students who are less aware of foreign aid tend to think that government should ask more
foreign aid.
Perception on Improving Education Sector (Quantitative Education and Qualitative Education):
(Figure 8: Perception on foreign aid spending on education) Strongly
Agree Agree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
Quantitative Education
Build more schools
32.8%
58.6%
7.5%
1.1%
Primary Education
31.1%
65.2%
3.7%
0%
Increase primary education enrollment
34.8%
58.8%
6.4%
0%
Qualitative Education
Provide more facilities to school
66.4%
31.3%
1.5%
0.7%
Improving teaching method
63.1%
33.2%
3.4%
0.4%
Enhance education system
58.4%
37.1%
3.4%
1.1%
Last but not least, the last finding of our research questions is aiming to find out how students
want foreign aid on education sector to Cambodia to be spent on, and whether foreign aid
should be spent on “Quantity Education” or “Quality education”. According to the findings,
most of the students are satisfied and desire improving on both trends. For the Quantity
Education, there are 58.6% of strongly agree and 32.8% of agree, responses wanting foreign
aid to be spent on building more schools. In addition to the provision of primary education,
65.2% of students noticeably strongly agree, followed by another 31.1% of agrees.
Meanwhile, expecting to increase primary education enrollment, there are only 6.4% in total
who strongly disagree. Similarly to Quantity Education, the students also want to see the
improvement in Quality Education. 66.4% of respondents strongly agree while there are just
2.2% of who disagree and strongly disagree on providing more facilities to schools such as
books, laboratory, and other related education materials. Moreover, 96.3% of respondents
agree that teaching method is also really important that needs improvement. Furthermore,
95.5% out of 100% agree in wanting to see changes in education system; for example, to
revise curriculums, strictness, examination strategies, and so on (Figure 8).
Students’ Awareness and Perception 16
Discussion
The study has revealed that the type of university major has indeed an effect on students’
awareness of foreign aid. IFL students majoring in International Studies were more aware
than ITC students majoring in Engineering across all awareness related questions.
When it comes to year level, the study also confirmed that regardless of the students’ major,
higher year level students (Year 4 and 5) were more aware of foreign aid than those in Year 1
who have just entered university. This can be explained by the exposure to academic
materials in the university and other outside influences such as paying more attention to the
news or media, though this is not the scope of our study.
In general, students within our study population believe that foreign aid help poor countries
to develop through various ways such as increase public spending which generally contribute
to people’s living standard improvement, increase in investment which generate more jobs,
and so on. However, there is conflicting perception on how foreign aid damages recipient
countries’ reputation in the international arena; in short, some respondents agree while some
respondents do not. Because students from different universities and year level think
differently due to their awareness about foreign aid. Furthermore, on the idea that foreign aid
may reduce government of poor countries’ incentive to develop their countries, almost all of
the respondents have the same idea that they agree on this perception. It is hard to say that
respondents have different ideas because of their different ways of thinking or due to what
they have known in general about foreign aid, so there is no clear answer to this reason. On
the idea of whether to keep the amount of foreign aid at the same level or increase,
respondents tend to have different perception based on their differences of year levels and
universities. We believe that those respondents who think government should ask for more
foreign aid because they still think foreign aid to Cambodia is too small and is not enough;
while those who want to keep foreign aid at the same amount because they think that even if
there is more foreign aid there will not be effective use of it, and it only generates bad side
effects including corruption.
The fact that most students perceive education as the most important aspect among the nine
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations is notable. This can be
explained by the lack of education and the relatively low literacy rate of 77.6% (NIS, 2008)
Students’ Awareness and Perception 17
in Cambodia, where education is believed to be the key in its economic as well as social
development.
However, respondents did not show a distinct preference between quality and quantity
education, but rather, pursued both equally. The responses here did not vary across major or
year level. The pursuing of quality education can be explained by the fact that many of the
respondents themselves having personally experienced the educational system in Cambodia
might be led to believe that the quality of Cambodian educational system is poor and should
improve. At the same time, the pursuing of quantity education could be attributed to the fact
that many rural areas in Cambodia still lack schools (UNICEF, 2011).
Limitation
We have three major limitations during our research process as well as three suggestions for
future researchers. One of the main obstacles of our study is the balance of study population.
Specifically there was an imbalance between IFL and ITC respondents in terms of number.
IFL respondents exceed ITC respondents by almost twice, which gave us more difficulty in
analyzing data, though since we used percentage points, it was not a grave problem. As a
result, we would like to suggest for future researchers to try to balance the population based
on their variable equally that will be easier to do analysis on their data. On the top that, we
also think that our study population is too small to generalize our research question and
finding since we only conducted survey on only a group of undergraduate students at IFL and
ITC particularly first year, fourth year, and fifth year of both universities. Therefore, we
suggest for future researchers to extend this research in a large scale with larger study
population in order to give a more accurate and generalized findings. Last but not least, we
faced some difficulties in finding literature review prior to our research questions. Since our
topic is one that not that many researchers have previously studied, it was difficult to find
information to support our research question in the literature review; thus, we suggest it is
better for future researchers try to find literature review at the same time try to adjust their
research questions to what you have found so far, and create or develop new research
questions based on their availability and limitation of resources and knowledge.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 18
Conclusion
In conclusion, this study of university students’ awareness and perception in Cambodia is
important because of its foreign aid recipient status. Some major points in our findings are
that students, the higher their level of study, the more they are aware of foreign aid issues.
Also, although perception varied, a significant number of students perceived that the amount
of foreign aid should stay same. It points out that awareness does not necessarily lead to
wanting more foreign aid. As foreign aid in Cambodia continues to increase year by year,
further research should pay attention beyond university students to the broader public opinion
of recipients.
Students’ Awareness and Perception 19
References:
ActionAid UK. (2007). Opinion Poll on Public Attitudes to Aid: Summary. ActionAid, London. Retrived from https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/doc_lib/poll_summary.pdf
ADB (n.d). Asian Development Bank and Cambodia: Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.adb.org/publications/cambodia-fact-sheet
Birchler, K. & Michaelowa, K. (2012). What is the effect of aid on primary enrollment and quality of education. Retrieved from http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/working-papers/2013/en_GB/wp2013-021/
CDC (2011). Aid management in Cambodia. Retrieved from http://www.cdc-crdb.gov.kh/cdc/aid-management-cambodia.html
Childfund Australia (2011). Australian perceptions of global child poverty and aid effectiveness. Childfund Australia, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.childfund.org.au/sites/default/files/publications/Australian%20Perceptions%20of%20Child%20Poverty%20and%20Aid%20Effectiveness%202011.pdf
Connolly, E., Doyle, J., Dwyer, F. (2008). Public opinion and development issues: a survey of Irish university student opinions. In Irish Studies in International Affairs, 19, pp. 209-226.
Ear, S. (2006). The political economy of aid, governance, and policy-making: Cambodia in global, national, and sectoral perspectives (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://csua.berkeley.edu/~sophal/ear_diss.pdf
EFA 2005 Report. (2005). Education for All-The Quality Imperative. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137333e.pdf
Harris, A., Milner, H., Findley, M., & Nielson D. (2013). Elite And Mass Perceptions Of Foreign Aid In Recipient Countries: A Field Experiment In Uganda.
JICA (2012). Country Assistance Policy for Cambodia. Retrieved from http://www.jica.go.jp/cambodia/english/
Kwon, Y. & Park, S. (2012). Korean Public Opinion About Development Aid: Korea’s Role in Economic Development. Seoul: Korea Economic Institute.
Ky, S., Lee, C., & Stauvermann, P. J. (September, 2012). Journal of East Asian Economic Intergration. A comparative study on characteristics of ODA of China-Japan-Korea to Cambodia, 16(4).
McDonnell, I., Lecomte, H. S., & Wegimont, L. (2003). Public Opinion and the Fight against Global Poverty, North-South Centre of the Council of Europe & OECD Development Centre, Paris: OECD.
Milner H.V., Tingley D.H. (2013). Public opinion and foreign aid: A review essay. International Interactions, forthcoming.
National Institute of Statistics (2008). General population census of Cambodia 2008. Retrieved from http://www.stat.go.jp/english/info/meetings/cambodia/pdf/pre_rep1.pdf
NGO Forum and Bank Information Center Publication (2005). Unpacking the ADB: A Guide to the Asian Development Bank (2nd Ed). Washington, D.C: USA
Students’ Awareness and Perception 20
UNICEF (2011). Education: Cambodia. UNICEF, New York. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/cambodia/3.Education.pdf
USAID (2013). United States Agency for International Development. Retrieved from https://www.usaid.gov
Students’ Awareness and Perception 21
Apprendix 1: Survey Questionnaire
Survey: Questionnaire
University Students’ Awareness of and Perception on Foreign Aid
This survey is being conducted by a group of students at the Department of International Studies, Institute of Foreign Languages, Royal University of Phnom Penh. The study will help researchers acknowledge the awareness & perception of university student on foreign aid to Cambodia.
As with all sources of knowledge, your response to this survey, or any individual questions on the survey, is completely voluntary. You will not be individually identified and your responses will be used for statistical and academic purposes only.
If you have questions about your rights as a participant in this survey, or are dissatisfied at any time with any aspect of the survey, you may contact us at (+855) 16888715/ 12248470/ 70429248/ 10617008/ 69223399. 1. Gender: ☐ Male ☐ Female 2. Age: years old 3. Which Universities are you studying at? ☐IFL: Major: Year: ☐ITC: Major: Year: ☐Other: Name: Major: Year:
Please read the following questions, and mark only ONE answer unless otherwise noted.
Q1: Please indicate how much you know about foreign aid in Cambodia.
*Note: indicate your knowledge about the information below ranging from ‘1’ to ‘5’.
1= I don’t know about this information at all; 2= I know a little about this information;
3= I am familiar about this information; 4= I’m quite sure about this information;
5= I know exactly about this information;
1 KOICA is the South Korean aid Agency. 1 2 3 4 5
2 JICA is the Japanese aid Agency. 1 2 3 4 5
3 “Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)” is the collection of many donor countries 1 2 3 4 5
4 “Asian Development Bank (ADB)” is one of the major donor agencies to Cambodia. 1 2 3 4 5
5 Cambodia has received foreign aid from many agencies including China, KOICA, JICA, ADB, WB 1 2 3 4 5
6 In 2012, Cambodia has received about US$1.38 billion in aid, which is equal to 9.8% of its total GDP. 1 2 3 4 5
Students’ Awareness and Perception 22
7 From 1992 to 2011, Japan was the biggest donor country to Cambodia. 1 2 3 4 5
8 Since 2011, China has been the biggest donor country to Cambodia, followed by Japan. 1 2 3 4 5
9 Did you know that most of the foreign aid is spent on transportation improvement, health care improvement, and government and administration' staffs?
1 2 3 4 5
Q2: In your opinion, is foreign aid very important, fairly important, not very important, or not at all important for Cambodia?
☐Very important
☐Fairly important
☐Not very important
☐Not at all important
☐Don’t know
Q3: In your opinion, is foreign aid making any difference to improving the lives of people in Cambodia?
☐Yes ☐No ☐Don‘t know
Q4: In your opinion, compared to other developing countries, what is the level of foreign aid Cambodia receives (please consider the relative size of the population)?
☐Cambodia receives much less
☐Cambodia receives less
☐Cambodia receives similar
☐Cambodia receives more
☐Cambodia receives much more
☐Don’t know
Q5: Based on your perception, please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of the following statements. There is no right or wrong answer. Just give your HONEST opinion.
SD=Strongly disagree, D=Disagree, A=Agree, SA=Strongly agree, DK=Don’t know
No Read out SD D A SA DK
1 Foreign aid helps to develop poor countries: increase public spending, increase investment, increase jobs, etc. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
2 Foreign Aid usually comes along with technological advancement. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Students’ Awareness and Perception 23
3 Foreign aid strengthens relationship between states (donor countries and recipient countries) ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
4 Foreign aid generates corruption in society due to improper distribution. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
5 Foreign aid reduces recipient countries’ reputation on international arena. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
6
Foreign aid may bring poor countries into crisis when poor countries solely rely on foreign aid (Donor countries may cut down their aid to recipient countries when they are dissatisfied with that country)
☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
7 Some foreign aid comes with ideology: democracy and communism. Thus, recipient state's decision-making is vulnerable to donor countries' foreign policy.
☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
8
Foreign aid may reduce governments of poor countries’ incentive to develop their country because when their countries become developed countries, the amount of foreign aid will be reduced
☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Q6: Based on the statements in Q5, do you want government of Cambodia to ask for more or to reduce foreign aid to Cambodia?
☐ Increase ☐ Stay the same ☐ Reduce
Q6.2: Why do you think that? Answer (optional):
Q7: From this list, which sector do you think is the most important that foreign aid should focus more, and which sector is the least important?
*Note: Rank them in order of importance from the most important ‘1’ to the least important ‘9’.
1 Reduce extreme poverty and hunger
2 Education
3 Promote gender equality and empower women
4 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
5 Health
6 Ensure a sustainable environment
Students’ Awareness and Perception 24
7 Agriculture development
8 Infrastructure and transportation
9 Industry and trade
Q8: In your opinion, please indicate how do you want foreign aid on education sector to Cambodia to be spent? Should foreign aid be spent more on improving “Quantity Education” or “Quality Education”?
*Note: SA: Strongly Agree, A: Agree, D: Disagree, SD: Strongly Disagree
No
SA A D SD
*Quantity Education
1 Building more schools ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
2 Providing primary education (grade 1-‐9) ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
3 Increase primary education enrollment ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
*Quality Education
1 Providing more facilities to school: books, laboratory, and all related education materials ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
2 Improving teaching methods ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
3 Enhancing education system: revise curriculum, strict examination, and etc. ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐