‘It's considered a second class thing.’ The differences in status between traditional and newly established higher education credentials

Abstract

Although the system of educational credentials differs in many important ways from country to country, all western countries have experienced a similar trend in the form of an increasing number of graduate degrees. Graduate degrees have also taken on a bewildering range of forms and content. As a consequence, not all graduate degrees have the same credibility and status in the labor market. The aim of this study is to discover how status differences among different kinds of master's degrees are justified within the dual system of Finnish higher education, and how these differences are experienced by graduates themselves. The qualitative data consist of interviews with 30 master's degree graduates and their accounts are narratively analyzed. Theories of educational credentialing are applied to reveal the complex linkage between graduate degrees and how organizational status and resources are hierarchically allocated to different groups of people.