5.6 Livelihood Context Associated with Social and Human Capital at
On the other hand, the frequency distribution of where students socialized (on/off campus) revealed that just under 80% of the low quintile students socialize on campus (see table 68 below).
Table 68 Socializing with friends on/off campus on/off campus Frequency Percent
on campus 31 79.5
off campus 8 20.5
Total 39 100.0
Total 41 100.0
Disadvantaged students’ main activities were confined within the campuses in the residences.
There are a number of explanations for this phenomenon. Most of these students stayed in campus residence accommodation. They were far from home. They had limited resources for social excursions outside of the university or campus where they were resident. However, some of the socializing took place between campuses where transport is provided like the Westville and Howard College campuses and also residences on the outskirts of these campuses. Furthermore, making good friends was noted as the most single important factor for first-year students’ academic success. This is not the ordinary type of friendship, but a unique one with an academic tag which enhances the academic progress of low quintile students. Student life for low quintile students revolved around creating social capital at different spheres. Socializing with friends created social capital at the academic and social levels. Thus, these two spheres encapsulate both social and academic integration, which are essential ingredients for student success at university (refer also to chapter two).
5.6.1.2 Discuss Academic Performance with Friends
More than 90% of the respondents discuss academic performance sometimes or often with friends. These results are shown in table 69 below.
Table 69 Discuss academic performance with friends Reply Frequency Percent
Always 15 36.6
Mostly 10 24.4
sometimes 12 29.3
occasionally 3 7.3
Never 1 2.4
Total 41 100.0
The notion of friendship at university level is akin to peer or social learning. Thus, low quintile students (disadvantaged) have founded social learning on friendship, which is more readily utilizable for academic purposes. Low quintile students perceive friendship as a source of social and academic integration and concomitant intellectual development. It is a resource operating at the social sphere that produces outcomes at the academic sphere. The implication is that educational processes and practices in higher education institutions should consider bringing social learning or peer learning on board for the benefit of low quintile students and other, mainstream students who could also benefit.
5.6.1.3 Friendship as Social Capital
The results in tables 70 and 71show that there is no difference between the GPA means at the different “friends influence” levels for both 2008 (with a p-value=0.710) and 2009 (p- value=0.955). The implication is that friendship was not a telling factor as far as GPA is concerned for the years under review.
Table 70 2008 GPA versus friends influence
Source
Type III Sum
of Squares Df
Mean
Square F Sig.
Corrected Model
103.166a 2 51.583 .348 .710
Intercept 63466.373 1 63466.373 427.986 .000
FGionY 103.166 2 51.583 .348 .710
Error 3410.691 23 148.291
Total 72220.237 26
Corrected Total
3513.856 25
Table 71 2009 GPA versus friends influence
Source
Type III Sum
of Squares Df
Mean
Square F Sig.
Corrected Model
11.596a 2 5.798 .046 .955
Intercept 99583.746 1 99583.746 787.719 .000
FGionY 11.596 2 5.798 .046 .955
Error 4677.552 37 126.420
Total 111665.763 40
Corrected Total
4689.148 39
However, it has been shown that friendship at university plays a multifaceted role (see chapter two). It encapsulates the creation and realization thereof at the social, economic, academic, support and democratic spheres (see chapter one). At the social sphere it facilitates
social integration within the university system. At the academic sphere, it coordinates academic integration and concomitant intellectual development as it encourages social learning through peer groups and tutorials. At the economic sphere, students share material goods, including accommodation if there is a need.
5.6.1.4 Friendship for Academic Purposes: Social capital Operationalised
This analysis is linked to the analysis of the learning environment variables below where students were asked to list sources of help they received. Table 72 below shows that social networks in the form of friends as sources of help accounted for 53.68% (n=22 of the 41 low quintile students) of participants in this study.Table 72 Sources of Help (from open section of questionnaire) Count If Yes to items a-f Give Source of Help Parent yes 4 If Yes to items a-f Give Source of Help Siblings yes 4 If Yes to items a-f Give Source of Help Friends yes 22 If Yes to items a-f Give Source of Help Staff (lecturers etc) yes 4 If Yes to items a-f Give Source of Help Other (specify) yes 3
This is not just friendship but a special type of friendship for academic purposes. Thus, friendship has been the main source of social capital amongst students when faced with difficulties associated with the learning environment variables at issue. This finding resonates with evidence from the higher education literature that university residences are homes away from home.
Friendship constitutes human capital which imbues the social learning of low quintile students. Students often do not have much choice on curriculum; however they have choices on how to choose their friends which enhances learning opportunities to improve academic performance. This said, the suitability of the SLA approach lies in its ability to capture the choices students make in an attempt to achieve sustainable livelihoods as they pursue their studies at university.