Family and cultural resources that affect an applicant’s acceptance at university

Abstract

In this article were discussed the influence of family and cultural resources on the applicant admission to a higher educational institution. The relevance of the topic is based on the need to study and improve human capital quality. The main research questions are the family and cultural resources structure, and a person’s family resource relationship with other assets, as well as the conditions for students’ academic achievement. The project is based on a modern resource approach and a theoretical human resources model, proposed by the Russian sociologist Natalia Aleksandrovna Yakovleva to study starting inequality in the student environment. At the empirical part of the study, a survey of St. Petersburg State Institute of Cinema and Television first-year students was performed. Additional project modules were secondary analysis of available sociological results and use of statistical data. The author presents an applicant’s family resources analysis based on such empirical referents as education and professional parents activities, family income, parental attitudes towards higher education for children, family value orientations. Students’ cultural resource was studied according to the activity of visited cultural events, participation in workshops, as well as a set of the most important life attitudes. It was found that the family economic resource, the parents’ education level, family motivation for providing children with higher education, and the creative profession of the father had the greatest impact on admission to the university. Applicants’ cultural capital increased the success of passing the creative test and interview. The main factors in the students’ academic performance are their educational capital, participation in cultural events, and the family cultural capital. The study prospect is to expand the empirical project base for a comparative analysis of the applicants’ and their families’ universities choice with different ratings.