This study explores paths by which Oman’s higher education establishments can

build stronger community connections to satisfy the country’s socioeconomic development

and safeguard its cultural values. As the country’s most important educational resource,

Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) adds to the nation’s human capital of skills and

knowledge it may also contribute to the country’s social capital of informed networks and

community growth through engagement with representatives of its civil society. To explore

the university’s contribution to capital accumulation for the country, and to analyse data on

capital risk, recent cohorts of graduates from SQU’s Mass Communication Department

(MCD) were selected for study on the grounds of their unacceptably high level of

unemployment.-This study explores paths by which Oman’s higher education establishments can

build stronger community connections to satisfy the country’s socioeconomic development

and safeguard its cultural values. As the country’s most important educational resource,

Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) adds to the nation’s human capital of skills and

knowledge　it may also contribute to the country’s social capital of informed networks and

community growth through engagement with representatives of its civil society. To explore

the university’s contribution to capital accumulation for the country, and to analyse data on

capital risk, recent cohorts of graduates from SQU’s Mass Communication Department

(MCD) were selected for study on the grounds of their unacceptably high level of

unemployment.