The Connection of Cultural Capital with Success in Master’s Degree Programmes in Finnish Higher Education

Abstract

This article deals with the effects of cultural capital on attainment in higher education using Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital as a frame of reference. Attainment and success in higher education is perceived as a combination of multiple variables being the grade point average of the student’s higher education studies, the age at graduation, the time of graduation and the amount of credits studied. Participants of this survey study were 499 university graduates from six different disciplines from the University of Turku, Finland. Results indicate that cultural capital, as well as the variables comprising it, has an effect on educational attainment even though this effect is not a straightforward one