From University Margins to Social Belonging: A Qualitative Study of Baloch Students' Higher Education and Post-University Integration in Pakistan

Higher education in Pakistan is widely framed as a pathway to mobility and integration, particularly for students from marginalised regions. Yet little research examines how minority graduates interpret their university experiences in relation to post-university belonging. This study investigates how Baloch graduates understand the relationship between higher education and their social positioning after graduation. Using a qualitative, interpretivist design, the research draws on five semi-structured interviews and applies a Bourdieusian framework to analyse recognition, capital conversion and belonging. The findings show that university education provided formal inclusion and personal achievement but did not guarantee stable social legitimacy after graduation. Degrees functioned as conditional capital whose value depended on external recognition. Belonging emerged as fragile and negotiated rather than secure. The study demonstrates that integration fails not at the level of access...Show moreHigher education in Pakistan is widely framed as a pathway to mobility and integration, particularly for students from marginalised regions. Yet little research examines how minority graduates interpret their university experiences in relation to post-university belonging. This study investigates how Baloch graduates understand the relationship between higher education and their social positioning after graduation. Using a qualitative, interpretivist design, the research draws on five semi-structured interviews and applies a Bourdieusian framework to analyse recognition, capital conversion and belonging. The findings show that university education provided formal inclusion and personal achievement but did not guarantee stable social legitimacy after graduation. Degrees functioned as conditional capital whose value depended on external recognition. Belonging emerged as fragile and negotiated rather than secure. The study demonstrates that integration fails not at the level of access but at the level of recognition. By centring graduates’ interpretations, the thesis contributes to debates on inequality, belonging and the limits of higher education as an integrative institution in unequal societies.Show less

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From University Margins to Social Belonging: A Qualitative Study of Baloch Students' Higher Education and Post-University Integration in Pakistan