The main goal of this paper is to present the results of an examination of the relations between university titles, professional occupation, and social position in Brazil in recent decades. Using census micro data as the source for empirical data, University degrees are confronted with occupational positions and with the income of the main job. According to this paper's general hypothesis, since the social uses of university degrees are imbedded in a myriad of markets and differentiated relations with the structure of power, on the one hand the proportion of those who have an "elite" occupation is growing. On the other hand, the strong diversity in the uses of university degrees also results in the large number of people holding an occupation with lower income to that of the occupational category corresponding to that degree. The field of knowledge has little relevance in this case, contrary to the possibilities of using such a title in a position of power or below that respective professional category.
university title and professional market; university title and ruling groups; university title and social position
