SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF SCHOOLING, SOCIAL CAPITAL, AND CURRICULUM GAPS IN FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURIAL ASPIRATION AND ENTERPRISE CULTURE AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN NORTHWEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the role of schooling, social capital, and curriculum gaps in shaping This entrepreneurial aspirations and enterprise culture among undergraduates in Northwest Nigeria. It employed a descriptive survey design, involving 400 undergraduates from four public universities across Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, and Kaduna States, selected through a multi-stage stratified random sampling process. A structured questionnaire, validated by experts in curriculum studies and entrepreneurship education and subjected to a reliability test yielding a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.81, was used for data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that curriculum content in the sampled universities exhibits a moderate but insufficient integration of entrepreneurship-oriented learning experiences, that undergraduates' access to social capital (family networks, mentorship, and community ties) significantly predicts entrepreneurial aspiration, and that gaps between the formal curriculum and lived enterprise culture persist across disciplines and gender lines. The study concludes that curriculum reform alone, without deliberate attention to the sociological structures that mediate access to opportunity, is unlikely to produce a robust enterprise culture. Recommendations include embedding experiential entrepreneurship modules across all faculties, institutionalising structured mentorship and networking schemes, and mainstreaming sociological content on social capital into curriculum planning processes in Nigerian universities.