Empirical Investigation of Social Mobility Aspirations and Achievement Among First-Generation University Students in the South South Zone

First-generation university students in Nigeria face distinctive social mobility challenges and aspirations shaped by their dual position as educational pioneers in their families and as navigators of a higher education system designed by and for more advantaged social groups. This study empirically investigates social mobility aspirations and their achievement among first-generation university students in Rivers, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom States, South South Nigeria. A longitudinal empirical design tracked 260 first-generation students at three universities from admission through to one year post-graduation, administering aspiration and social position surveys at admission and post-graduation, supplemented by twenty graduate interviews. Social mobility was measured through occupational status change across the student-parent generational boundary. Logistic regression identified predictors of upward mobility achievement at one year post-graduation. Results indicate that 71% of tracked graduates had achieved some upward occupational mobility within twelve months, but only 38% had reached the professional-managerial occupational level aspired to at admission. High aspirations were universal but aspiration-achievement gaps were widest for students from the poorest family backgrounds, consistent with aspiration frustration mechanisms. Internship experience during undergraduate study was the single strongest predictor of achievement, increasing professional-level employment odds by 2.9 times. First-generation students from oil-community backgrounds demonstrated lower mobility achievement than counterparts from agricultural communities, reflecting local employment market dynamics. The study contributes longitudinal empirical evidence for aspiration-mobility dynamics among a first-generation student population that is analytically absent from Nigerian higher education sociology. Keywords: first-generation students, social mobility, aspiration, South South Nigeria, higher education.