Positional competition in the labour market entails graduate opportunities that depend not only on graduates’ skills, experience and abilities, but also on how their educational credentials compare to those of others. In this study, we examined the positional competition in the Finnish labour market and compared the influence of different ‘degree types’ on the probability of obtaining high-paid, high-status jobs. We used a register-based 5% sample of 25–45-year-old Finnish higher education (HE) graduates from 2010 to 2012 (N = 63 486). It was expected that the relative position of graduates would be affected by the degree level as well as the educational field and the binary division (university vs. non-university) of HE. Therefore, master’s and bachelor’s degree levels in all educational fields from universities versus universities of applied sciences (UASs) were included. The method of analysis was logistic regression. According to our results, the binary divide structured the opportunities to enter high-paid, high-status jobs within different fields of education. The university master’s degree graduates had the highest probability of succeeding in the Finnish labour market, and their status/rank elevated them above the competition by regulating access to certain professions or occupations through specific qualification requirements (i.e., credential social closure). Moreover, our results demonstrated how the degree rankings and the relative distance between university and UAS degrees vary in different fields. The Finnish case offers a valuable point of comparison to other HE systems with a binary structure.

劳动力市场的职位竞争需要毕业生机会，这不仅取决于毕业生的技能、经验和能力，还取决于他们的教育证书与其他人的比较。在这项研究中，我们研究了芬兰劳动力市场的职位竞争，并比较了不同“学位类型”对获得高薪、高地位工作的可能性的影响。我们使用了 2010 年至 2012 年 25-45 岁芬兰高等教育 (HE) 毕业生的基于注册的 5% 样本（N = 63 486）。预计毕业生的相对地位将受到高等教育学位水平以及教育领域和二元划分（大学与非大学）的影响。所以，包括大学与应用科学大学 (UAS) 所有教育领域的硕士和学士学位。分析方法为逻辑回归。根据我们的结果，二元鸿沟构建了进入不同教育领域的高薪、高地位工作的机会。大学硕士学位毕业生在芬兰劳动力市场取得成功的可能性最高，他们的地位/等级通过特定的资格要求（即证书社会封闭）规范某些专业或职业的准入，使他们在竞争中脱颖而出。此外，我们的结果展示了学位排名以及大学与 UAS 学位之间的相对距离在不同领域是如何变化的。