Beyond the Campus Walls: Public and Private Universities' Role in Shaping Political Involvement and Identity Perceptions

• In Event: Citizenship, Participation, and Identity

Abstract

How do public and private universities differently influence students' political participation and attitudes towards other identity groups? What role does the educational content in universities play in shaping students' perceptions of gender, caste, class, ethnicity, religion, and race? This paper serves as a deeper exploration of these questions through rigorous literature review of relevant political science, education, sociology and psychology seminal works. Higher education institutions often facilitate and encourage civic engagement and political awareness, both directly through curriculum and institutional ideology and indirectly through providing communal spaces for students to interact (Kumar 2022). As universities continue to be hotbeds for political activity and social movements, it is crucial to understand how variation in educational settings can prime individuals to behave differently politically and socially. This study posits that public universities, with their diverse demographics and political ties, enhance political participation and foster positive intergroup relations. Conversely, it suggests that private universities, with more homogenous populations, generate similar political involvement levels but with narrower party affiliations and potentially strained intergroup dynamics. This preliminary research evaluates the case of private and public universities in Gujarat in the foreground of the larger Indian higher education and political landscape. Lastly, I propose two preliminary research designs to empirically measure these questions in the future.

Author

• Ellen Kamalyan, American University