Emphasizing the differences that exist between students who live in urban and rural areas in China, the ways in which digital literacy and social capital shape access to institutions of higher education are examined in this study. The United Nations devised the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), of which 4 and 10 are investigated here, with the present study focus on inclusive education and the need to reduce inequality. Quantitative techniques, namely multiple logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression were deployed to analyze primary and secondary data relating to secondary school graduates in 2024. The results reveal notable disparities in access to postsecondary education institutions. Findings indicate that rural students disproportionately enroll in vocational colleges, while urban students tend toward research universities. What is also shown in this study is that digital literacy mediates the relationship between access to higher education and social capital. The findings confirm that digital literacy greatly influences access to various forms of higher education. This study adds to the corpus of knowledge on sustainable development and provides important information about education disparities. It does so by contrasting rural and urban settings.
Alam et al. (2026) studied this question.