Social capital is multifaceted; universities must broaden it, foster autonomy, and reject deficit-based policies for equity.
Authors
Snigdha Dutta, University College London, United Kingdom
Vrinda Bhatia, Lecturer, Office of English & Foreign Languages Centre for Writing Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
Summary
This chapter examines the concept of institutional belonging within higher education, emphasising the role of social capital in shaping students’ experiences. Social capital is presented to be multifaceted from which students can mobilise and access a range of support, including informational, social, financial, aspirational, and more. This chapter, while recognising the integral role of social capital in accessing and progressing through university, advocates for further nuance to foster equity and inclusion within higher education. It addresses the paradox between a university’s role in promoting and exacerbating belongingness by upholding rigid, tacit, and dominant archetypes of value systems and expectations of a university student. The idealised understanding of a university student and the capital they bring with them are critiqued, and the need for a broader understanding of social capital to include non-dominant and non-traditional ways of thriving and belonging is underscored. It cautions against policies and interventions based on compensating for students’ perceived deficits and instead recommends opportunities that encourage autonomy and agency among its diverse student community. The chapter uses comics from Aaina, an initiative in India, to communicate educational research as a method of developing a shared understanding of the range of experiences vis-à-vis student belonging and social capital in higher education.
Published in: Student Belonging in Higher Education: Perspectives and Practice
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