This paper examines how fields of study shape differentiated pathways of upward mobility for rural-origin university graduates, with a particular focus on the interaction between market-based and institutionally mediated returns to higher education. While research on higher education stratification has convincingly demonstrated that subject fields are associated with unequal labour-market outcomes, existing work has largely concentrated on earnings and occupational status (Yu & Hseih, 2022; Minaya et al., 2024). Much less attention has been paid to how subject differentiation structures access to state-allocated resources and institutional status, particularly in contexts where education functions as a key channel of institutional inclusion beyond labour-market outcomes. 

Using China as an empirical case, this study asks: through what pathways do rural-origin higher education graduates achieve upward mobility, and how do different fields of study shape these pathways? Specifically, it investigates how subject choices generate differentiated economic returns (income) and institutional returns, operationalised as access to urban hukou and political incorporation, and how these outcomes are mediated by graduates’ employment in subject-related sectors.

The paper adopts a dual-pathway framework, distinguishing between market-based returns and institutional returns to education. This framework builds on research on horizontal stratification in higher education, which shows that qualitative differentiation, such as fields of study, shapes life chances beyond educational level or institutional prestige (Agbonlahor, 2025; Sullivan et al., 2018). While the Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI) perspective highlights the importance of qualitative distinctions under educational expansion (Lucas, 2001), most empirical applications have focused on market outcomes in Western contexts. This study extends the framework by systematically incorporating non-market and institutional outcomes into the analysis of field-specific returns.

China provides a particularly informative case for education researchers because it represents a hybrid institutional environment in which market mechanisms coexist with strong state involvement in allocating educational and social opportunities. A central institutional mechanism in this context is the hukou (household registration) system, which regulates access to public services, welfare benefits, and formal employment in urban areas (Wu & Treiman, 2004). For rural-origin students, higher education functions not only as a means of skill acquisition but also as a pathway to institutional inclusion, with access to urban hukou reshaping long-term educational, occupational, and family trajectories (Bian & Li, 2014; Xiao & Bian, 2018).

To explain these patterns, the paper draws on Bourdieu’s analysis of institutional reproduction and Collins’s theory of credentialism and position competition. From a Bourdieusian perspective, higher education is structured by the dual-polarised matrix of institutional reproduction of the “state nobility” (Bourdieu, 1998). One pole is oriented towards science and knowledge, while the other is oriented towards administration and economic power. Fields of study are unevenly positioned within this structure, channelling graduates into distinct market-oriented or institution-oriented pathways. Within this framework, market-oriented pathways emphasise the conversion of field-specific skills into earnings, with returns shaped by industry demand. Institutional pathways, by contrast, operate through state recognition of credentials and access to administratively allocated resources. Collins’s theory of credentialism further highlights that, under educational expansion, credentials function as mechanisms of positional competition rather than neutral indicators of productivity (Collins, 2019). Together, these perspectives show how field-specific stratification operates through both market valuation and institutional allocation.

By discussing institutional returns alongside income outcomes, this study adds to European debates on higher education, social inclusion, and inequality. Although the hukou system is specific to China, the paper advances a transferable analytical framework for understanding how fields of study shape access to welfare, public-sector employment, and civic incorporation in different national contexts. In doing so, it contributes to ECER discussions on how education systems mediate social mobility within diverse institutional arrangements.

Data This study draws on data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) 2018, a nationally representative survey that provides detailed information on individuals’ educational trajectories, labour-market outcomes, household background, and institutional status. The 2018 sample is drawn from the 2013 Urban-Rural Integrated Household Survey database conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (2025), which covers 160,000 households across all 31 provinces of China (Beijing Normal University, n.d.). The analytical sample consists of individuals born between 1960 and 1995 who obtained higher education and originated from rural areas, defined by hukou status at birth. Focusing on multiple birth cohorts enables the analysis to capture changes in the returns to fields of study across different stages of China’s higher education expansion and market reform. The sample is further restricted to individuals observed after entry into the labour market, ensuring that both economic and institutional outcomes can be meaningfully assessed. Key independent variables include fields of study, categorised into STEM, law/ economics/ management (LEM), and humanities. The main outcome variables capture two dimensions of returns to education: market returns, measured by individual income, and institutional returns, operationalised as the acquisition of urban hukou status by 18 – 25-year-olds. Additional variables include industry of employment, cohorts, demographic characteristics, and family background measures. Sampling weights are applied to ensure national representativeness. Analytical Approach First, the study estimates the association between fields of study and income returns using multivariate regression models, controlling for individual characteristics, cohort effects, and family background. This step establishes patterns of horizontal stratification in market outcomes among rural-origin graduates. Second, the analysis examines institutional returns by modelling the likelihood of obtaining urban hukou as a function of field of study. Next, to capture the joint distribution of market and institutional returns, the study constructs a combined outcome typology that classifies graduates according to their income level and hukou status. This classification enables a more integrated assessment of upward mobility, revealing how different fields of study lead to distinct combinations of labour-market position and institutional mobility. Finally, the study investigates mechanisms by examining the role of employment in field-related industries. Mediation effect and moderation effect are tested to assess whether and how industry matching differentially channels market and institutional returns across subject groups. Heckman two-step estimation is used as a robustness check.

This study examines how fields of study shape differentiated returns to higher education for rural-origin students in China, focusing on economic and institutional dimensions of status attainment. By comparing income and urban hukou transfer, the analysis shows that subject choice produces distinct configurations of socio-economic status rather than a single hierarchy of advantage within China’s hybrid system. Economic returns decline from STEM to law, economics and management, and to humanities, consistent with evidence from other countries (e.g. Britton et al., 2022). In contrast, institutional returns increase in the same order. Thus, subject choices structure mobility through different combinations of market positioning and institutional inclusion, meaning wage-based evaluations overlook key inequalities operating through other channels. These outcomes are mediated by employment in subject-related industries. STEM graduates’ income advantages materialise mainly when they work in STEM-related sectors (Kinsler & Pavan, 2015). By contrast, humanities graduates’ higher likelihood of hukou transfer reflects their greater propensity to enter institutionally related occupations. Historically, humanities subjects held a central position in China’s educational tradition and were linked to bureaucratic status and symbolic prestige (Hayhoe, 2001). This legacy persisted in the early reform period, when humanities graduates had higher hukou transfer rates, even for those from junior colleges. In line with market transition, this institutional advantage weakened, while STEM became the main pathway to high income, but with limited institutional returns. In conclusion, these findings offer a new perspective on educational stratification in contexts where market and institutional logics coexist. It contributes to international debates on higher education and social mobility by highlighting how fields of study channel graduates into different modes of stratification depending on the institutional environment. This research calls for a broader conceptualisation of educational returns related to historical legacies and state involvement in the allocation of social opportunities.

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