Cultural capital and students’ academic performance: the case of Ethiopian higher educational institutions

Abstract

Since its origin in early 1950s, the Ethiopian higher education system has progressively undergone modest expansion. Its age-old challenges of inequality of opportunity and inefficiency have not withered. This study focuses on one of these challenges i.e. inequality and assesses the effectiveness of the post-1990s governmental interventions to bring the equalization of higher educational opportunity. Specifically, it assesses the relationship between parental cultural capital and students’ entry to and academic performance at three public universities. The authors employed a mixed methods approach to gather and discuss data relevant to students’ higher educational experience. The study found strong associations between parental cultural capital and students’ probability of entry to and success in higher education. The findings attest to the development of a scenario that could easily feed into the reproduction of structural disadvantages of students from low income households at the larger societal canvas. It concludes with a discussion on a few modest, pragmatic and policy-relevant recommendations.

Keywords: equality of education opportunity, cultural capital, academic performance, higher educational institutions