'Habitus' of law students at the University of Malta : an exploration of social capital and its relation to potential advantage

Abstract

The University of Malta is Malta’s biggest higher education institution, being free of charge for Maltese, EU and EEA citizens and with moderately challenging entry requirements for most programmes. In this way, one might expect the student body to pertain to a variety of social, economic and financial backgrounds, with exclusivity being pushed aside in favour of a meritocratic system which welcomes most. However, certain personal observations have inspired a deeper investigation into whether the meritocratic and levelled field of the University of Malta is truly what it sounds, or can certain factors create a potential advantage of some over others? Applying Bourdieu’s theories on habitus and the way that it facilitates social distinction and reproduction of society as well as his work on the sociology of education, a quantitative study targeting the students reading for their Bachelor of Laws and Master of Advocacy degrees sought to document the ways in which the unique field of the Maltese islands interacts with the forms of symbolic capital that the participants may possess and thus, how their dispositions – their habitus – towards their world are shaped and reinforced. By means of employing a digital questionnaire, quantitative data were collected from students currently reading for their Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Master of Advocacy degrees, with findings visually presented to highlight trends of responses in a clear and meaningful way. Additionally, further analysis of the data was done, cross-tabulating some variables together and subsequently testing for significance in their correlation – providing greater insight into the importance of some of the capital possession or lack thereof on participant dispositions towards given topics (such as their academic performance, the role that their capital or lack thereof, play in their experience of the course and the profession and their future aspirations). The results have shown that certain forms of capital such as type of secondary and post-secondary institution attended, presence of family members who are legal professionals and presence of friends from Sixth Form who entered the course have had an impact on student experiences and views. Most notably, the importance of the aforementioned factors was most cited as important by those not in their possession – highlighting the creation of the new social realm of advantage in which those in possession of it are often those who fail to see their standing as anything but the product of their own skill and perseverance. However, caution was advised in judgement of either advantaged or disadvantaged groups as reduced to their past and present standing in the field. In fact, individual agency was cited as an irreplaceable capacity which can shape an individual’s life in ways away from the position in their field at a given point in time.