Impacts of The COVID-19 Pandemic On First-Generation, Low-Income And Rural Students In Indonesia And Vietnam: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study.

Djita, Rian R.; Tran, Bich Thi Ngoc; Nguyen, Nguyet Thi Minh; Wibawanta, Budi

Comparative studies around the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are still limited. This paper explores the question: how has the COVID-19 pandemic affected higher education students, and which ones have been most impacted? Indonesia and Vietnam are our focus. We leveraged a rich set of data collected online from both countries (n = 2600). We used regression analyses to measure students' wellbeing, financial hardships, access to technology, and educational satisfaction. As expected, we found statistically significant differences between both countries except for the wellbeing domain. For within-country comparison, consistent for both countries, low-income students were less likely to access technology and were more likely to experience financial distress than their counterparts. Indonesian first-gen students also showed a similar trend. Lastly, we observed a lower likelihood of satisfaction from rural and low-income students in Indonesia for their education during the pandemic. We provide our policy recommendations for both countries.

INDONESIA; VIETNAM; COVID-19 pandemic; LOW-income students; LOW-income countries; CROSS-cultural studies; FINANCIAL stress; COMPARATIVE studies

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 2022, Vol 14, Issue 3, p121

2151-0393

Academic Journal

10.32674/jcihe.v14i3a.4636