The value of friendships in academic success

ETH sociologists have demonstrated through a new dynamic network analysis method how relationships among Bachelor’s students develop and turn into a network during the first academic year. “The extent to which a student’s network and degree of integration influenced their individual results did surprise me”, says Christoph Stadtfeld, sociologist and ETH Professor of Social Networks, “some students don’t fail because of their individual abilities but because they fall through the network.” The ETH researchers examined a total of 9,266 informal relationships involving a total of 226 Bachelor’s students in their first year at ETH Zurich for their study, the results of which are published in the magazine “PNAS”.

Source: www.ethz.ch