Higher Education aspirations and choice: The case of young Bangladeshi individuals in East London

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors influencing the university decision-making process of British Bangladeshi students. Whilst a considerable amount of research exists on factors influencing the university decision-making process of different ethnic groups, there are very few studies that provide details on the university decision-making process of Bangladeshi students, and the studies that have attempted to do this were limited in scope. The major research question guiding this study was: How and why do British Bangladeshi students decide to pursue higher education (HE)? A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used in this study, where quantitative data (university questionnaire) informed the qualitative phase (semi-structured interviews). 140 Year 13 Bangladeshi students from schools in London (in Tower Hamlets and Ilford) completed the questionnaire, and 19 students took part in the interviews. The study finds that access to social capital resources enables the social network to influence British Bangladeshi’s HE decision-making process. Students’ HE aspirations were mostly influenced through the norms and expectations that their parents had conveyed; however, they were unable to foster the mechanisms to achieve this goal. Thus, other sources of social capital were needed to support students’ pursuit of HE. Students had to rely on significant individuals to support them through the university application process by being their main sources of information. The study also finds that students are rational decision-makers and that their educational choices are made to maximise economic and social returns, although it was clear that economic returns are more important. Bangladeshi students, based on the availability of information in their social networks and subject to constraints posed by their social background, chose HE to maximise total expected returns.