Student Loans And Social Mobility Of The Needy Students: The Extension Of Capital Transformation Theory

Since the expansion of higher education, the higher education expenses growed rapidly, the number of needy students increased continually. To ensure the needy students access and successfully complete university studies, as well as to promote them upward social mobility, China started student loan policy in 1999. After eleven years of development, student loans have become a subsidy policy, which have the most extensive coverage, the strongest financing intensity and the most helpful to solve financial difficulties of needy students. It helped more and more needy students complete university studies and improved social status. So, whether student loans have promoted upward social mobility of needy students, in other words, whether student loans have the function of promoting upward social mobility? Furthermore, if it has, what is the mechanism of the function? Can Capital transformation theory fully explain this mechanism? If it can't, what is enlightenment to the extension of capital transformation theory? In order to answer these questions, this research based on social mobility theory and capital transformation theory, constructed a proper analytical framework, adopted three research methods including comparative, quantitative and qualitative, used the data collected from a questionnaire survey and the qualitative material from a depth interview, carried out a systematic study.The study firstly analyzed whether student loans have the function of promoting upward social mobility. Theoretical analysis found, the social objectives of student loans and the aim of needy students in debt are both for promoting upward social mobility of needy students; needy students' social mobility faced the barrier of lacking economic capital, the nature they get student loans is obtaining a certain amount of economic capital, so student loans should promote social mobility of needy students to some extent. Via comparing the social mobility situation of needy students in debt and needy students with no debt, we found that regardless of the social mobility table or the statistics of social mobility index, social mobility of needy students in debt is better than needy students with no debt, student loans have a positive function to promote the social mobility of needy students. The empirical study further found that the social mobility function of students is not occurred by direct channels, but via an indirect channel which student loans transformed into various types of capital that is required to realize social mobility. Then, the study revealed that within the field of higher education, the student loans as economic capital in nature, how translated into cultural capital, human capital and social capital that needy students require in their social mobility. It was found that the needy students who had got student loans broke the constraints of family economic status. When they got cultural capital, they invested more economic capital, and had positive psychological expectations. When they accumulated human capital, they increased the ability of human capital investment and improved academic performance. When they generated social capital, they used more economic resources and time in social interaction, expanded the scale of social interaction. The study also demonstrated, in the process of transforming from economic capital into cultural capital, human capital and social capital of needy students, there were some features such as secondary, difference, and symbiotic and limited.On these bases, this study further analyzed how the cultural capital, human capital and social capital which stem form student loans influenced the social mobility of needy students. It was found that the level of social status and cultural capital almost formed a positive connection, "highly educated" is linked with "good job", needy students got cultural capital, mean getting the "ticket" accesses to field of high social status. Human capital has productive effect and allocation effect, so it became the basis on which they can improve their social status. Social capital could serve as "information channels" to provide labor market information required in social mobility for needy students; also could act as "human network", through the form of "hello" influenced the employer, made needy students finally across the class barriers, completing the mobility from low to high social class. Cultural capital, human capital and social capital were not only singly promoting the social mobility of needy students, but also formed a joint force to promote the needy students to upward social class.Finally, the study carried out theoretical abstraction and induction, it showed the essence of social mobility of needy students, in the conditions of increasing the cultural capital, human capital and social capital, the needy students got corresponding jobs, and realized the possibility of upgrading the social class, then got more economic capital, cultural capital, human capital and social capital, and the cycle continued. The mechanism of student loans how to promote the social mobility of needy students, is that the student loans transformed into the cultural capital, human capital and social capital which they needed, increased their competitiveness in the labor market, and then got better profession, improved the social status, realized upward social mobility. According to the nature of needy students' social mobility and the mechanism of student loans' promoting the social mobility, the study extended the theory of capital transformation, that is:capital could be divided into economic capital, human capital, cultural capital and social capital, four types of capital have their own functions and institutional forms; Among the four types of capital, economic capital is the foundation of the cultural capital, human capital and social capital generated, cultural capital, human capital and social capital is the deformation of economic capital; In the process of capital transformation, the need of actors is the power of capital transformation, Between transformation and accumulation of the different types of capital require different time and different conditions, also have different transformation mechanisms; Undifferentiated human labor is the measurement scale of capital transformation, Capital conversion does not follow the law of conservation of energy, there have energy spillover.