Over the last 20 years, a growing number of research studies focus on social inequalities in relation to the use of Information and Communication Technologies in education. In the first part, we outline the relevant literature, the debate about the digital divide and the different sociological perspectives through which it is examined and interpreted. In the second part we present the findings of an empirical research conducted with first-year higher education (HE) students examining the relationship between socioeconomic background and Internet access and use. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, we found a correlation between socioeconomic background and Internet use. We argue that the digital divide is a divide in use rather than in access, and that new social inequalities emerge which are reproduced in different ways than in the past. We conclude that any attempts to examine social inequalities in HE need to focus on the issue of the digital divide in relation to Internet use, as it constitutes a critical parameter which impacts on academic knowledge, students´ performance and their transition to the labor market.