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The Role of Social Origin and Social Capital in Accessing Higher Education by Backward Class Students of India

This paper draws a picture of how social origin and social capital play decisive roles in the selection of higher educational programmes among backward class students of India. The two dimensions of social capital namely family social capital and social networks are considered as social capital in this study. Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are the three social groups dealt as backward classes. This paper investigates if there is any difference in the social capital of the students who accessed prestigious professional programmes such as Medical, Engineering and Paramedical courses and the students who accessed less prestigious programmes such as Arts and Science courses. This paper also investigates if there is any association between social origin and choice of different higher educational programmes by backward class students. Data were collected from 523 backward class students pursuing higher educational programmes in government, aided and private institutions of Kerala state of India. The result shows that social background of the backward class Students has significant role in getting admission to higher educational courses they have accessed. The study also reveals that social capital also plays significant role in certain situations, to get access to higher education.