When one degree isn’t enough: analysing Chilean university graduates’ motivations for postgraduate studies

Postgraduate studies have recently expanded in regions such as Asia and Latin America. However, there is limited understanding of the individual-level motivations sustaining this growth and how they are shaped by specific contexts. This study examines the motivations of graduates for pursuing postgraduate education in Chile. A total of 55 semi-structured interviews were conducted with graduates from 17 Chilean universities who graduated between 2015 and 2017. These universities varied in selectivity, and the interviewees came from a diverse array of fields of study. Using qualitative content analysis, we explored how motivations are shaped within a stratified higher education system and a labour market marked by limited absorption of highly specialised human capital. Findings show that graduates expressed both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for pursuing postgraduate studies, with extrinsic motivations being more prominent in their narratives. Among extrinsic drivers, credentialist motivations were more prevalent than those related to human capital, as postgraduate degrees were mainly perceived as symbolic resources that conferred legitimacy and positional advantage in the labour market. Notably, this credentialist logic was not uniform. While graduates well-positioned in the labour market used postgraduate degrees to secure distinction and upward mobility, those coming from less selective institutions and fields of study viewed them defensively, aiming to re-legitimise devalued undergraduate credentials and avoid precarious employment. In the Chilean context, these different perspectives reveal an intermediate mechanism: graduates’ motivations create a demand for postgraduate credentials, which perpetuates a self-reinforcing cycle of credential inflation.