
Social Capital Explained
Social capital refers to the value that comes from belonging to specific networks of people and organizations. Within these communities, people are able to share information, assist others, and establish generational trust. In short, it’s the value of your relationships. Social capital has been proven to play an important role in outcomes ranging from income to health. It is well accepted that if you are born into a family with valuable resources and connections, you can leverage this situation to accumulate even more wealth. This could mean going to the best schools, inheriting valuable assets, and having direct access to other people with social clout.

Bridging the Gap
Students from low income backgrounds entering higher education are at an inflection point of their lives – making a choice that will incur thousands in debt and define their life trajectory for the foreseeable future. Many students do this without time, space, or mentorship to help them make the right decisions for them. And, as the Harvard study shows, deciding to not go can actually make things harder as higher education positively impacts economic connectedness.
Key Takeaways
- Students from low income backgrounds are operating with a capital and social capital deficit
- Being able to focus on studies, especially in final years or do a relevant unpaid internship rather than working to supplement living costs, has clear advantages. Moreover, a community of high income mentors can provide an insider perspective on professional development to help students make informed career decisions and understand where particular skills will be most valued.
Money should not be the deciding factor in the choice of whether or not someone stays in university
- For those who are accepted into university and want to go, not attending or not being able to continue due to financial reasons, can have a lifelong impact on their upward mobility. This is a societal shortcoming that needs to be addressed at scale.
- More can and should be done to develop scalable solutions to address proven barriers to economic mobility
- We can spend generations in siloes trying to impact something that is fundamentally not built with economic connectedness and income mobility in mind, or we can build something the way it should have always been and empower low income students to make the choice that is right for them.