Let’s Show Them the Ropes: Why University Friends May Help Australia’s New Intake of Working-Class Students to Succeed

Like the USA and UK, Australia is currently attempting to increase the number of working-class students at its universities. I have recently published a short piece in Higher Education Research and Development in which I argue that Australia’s social and education researchers need to focus their efforts on identifying the best approaches towards facilitating these students’ success at uni (Rubin, 2012). In particular, we need to consider how to increase the social integration of working-class students at uni.

In a recent review of American research, I’ve shown that working-class students are significantly less integrated at uni than middle-class students (for more, see here). This is a problem because there’s clear evidence that social integration positively predicts academic performance and persistence.

Social integration is likely to be particularly important for working-class students because many of them are the first in their families to attend university and, consequently, they are less likely to get helpful advice from their parents about how to navigate university life. For example, when a working-class student falls ill and asks their parents what to do about their late coursework assignment, their parents may tell them to do the best they can and submit on time. But middle-class parents, who've been at uni, are likely to suggest applying for an extended due date. It’s for this sort of reason that I think it's vital for working-class students to make friends at uni. Uni friends can provide valuable informational and social support that helps fill the experience gap of working-class students. In short, uni friends can help show working-class students the ropes.

In my article, I argue that we need more research in this area in order to figure out the main causes of working-class students' social exclusion. The results of this research will inform the best approaches towards increasing working-class students’ social integration and give them a better chance of succeeding at uni.

For further information, please see the following journal article:

Rubin, M. (2012). Working-class students need more friends at university: a cautionary note for Australia's higher education equity initiative Higher Education Research & Development, 31 (3), 431-433 DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2012.689246 Free access available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/vfyypRnNZK27hiH5WDQ8/full 

Working-Class Students Are Left Out at Uni

In a review paper published this month, I report the results of a meta-analysis of 35 separate studies that surveyed over 62,000 university students, mostly in the United States. I found that there was a significant positive relation between students’ social class (socioeconomic status) and the degree of social integration that they experience at their universities and colleges.

The higher students’ social class, the more likely they were to participate in formal social activities such as campus-based clubs, societies, and organizations. Higher social class was also positively related to participation in informal social activities such as the number of friends on campus, dates, parties, and nonclassroom conversations. Finally, social class was positively related to students’ sense of belonging to their higher education institutions.

These results are worrying because they suggest that working-class students are being left out of a number of social activities that have been shown to predict students’ academic performance and persistence at university. In my review, I suggest several potential explanations for these social class differences.

For further information, please see the following journal article:

Rubin, M. (2012). Social class differences in social integration among students in higher education: A meta-analysis and recommendations for future research. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 5 (1), 22-38 DOI: 10.1037/a0026162