Transfer of Students’ Human Capital in the Russian Education System

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the sociological interpretation of such a phenomenon as human capital transfer in educational communities. The first part reveals the content of the concept of “transfer of students’ human capital”, while justifying its application in the study of the educational failure/success of schoolchildren and students. The second part presents a theoretical model of the considered phenomenon through such structural elements as goals, subjects, processes and mechanisms. The third part is devoted to the contradictions in the transfer of human capital within educational communities in Russia. The contradictions between goals and interests of the subjects of education are regarded as the key ones. The final part expands on how significant the concept under consideration is to sociology of education. The results of an interdisciplinary study conducted in 2019–2021 in Sverdlovsk region’s educational facilities (schools, colleges, universities) serve as the empirical foundation for the article. It is shown that transfer of students’ human capital is a kind of capital movement, with its features determined by the social nature of educational activities and interaction. The process under study is associated with such a phenomenon as academic success/failure of students, given that while it unfolds the human capital of schoolchildren and students can either be developed or depleted. The transfer of human capital involves three groups of education subjects — actors, agents and participants who perform certain social roles and possess varying opportunities for regulating this process. The empirical data is interpreted based on the proposed theoretical model, with the results indicating the contradictions of the goals, vectors and results of the transfer of human capital among Russian students. © 2021, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.