As the Biden administration commits to expanding resources to college students and postsecondary institutions with the fewest financial resources, there’s no shortage of proposals on how best to put those dollars to work to improve college access. But most of these big bets suffer a blindspot: more equitable pathways to opportunity will require access to networks, not just credentials.
The relationship between networks—or social capital—and social mobility is well-documented. Still, conversations about improving postsecondary outcomes tend to skirt the topic of networks altogether. It’s politely (or blindly) assumed that access to a network is wrapped up in access to a college degree.
Mistaking contact for connection
Although many college campuses will soon return to bustling social environments, slim but troubling data from before the pandemic suggests that those environments didn’t in fact translate into reliable, much less equitable, access to supportive or lasting social connections. For example, among postsecondary alumni, fewer than half of students report having had a mentor in college and only 9% of graduates report that their alumni network was helpful. At 4-year schools, first-generation students report lower levels of a sense of belonging than their continuing generation peers. And students of color are 34% less likely to cite having a professor as a mentor compared to their white peers.
Given that networks drive persistence in school and job opportunities after school, data points like these should be troubling to leaders betting on college degrees as a ticket to social mobility.
Luckily, however, research is starting to show how institutions can become more deliberate, equitable, and effective brokers of social capital. My colleague Dr. Mahnaz Charania and I summarized these trends in a new playbook for postsecondary leaders, 5 steps to building and strengthening students’ networks.
Drawing on that research, here are a few promising strategies to better understand how students are experiencing relationships on campus and to ensure all students have access to networks they need to thrive on campus and in their careers:
