Social mobility in transition. Value repertoires in higher education and moral meanings of the profession among first-generation graduates in Chile

Introduction This study examines how first-in-family graduates incorporate value repertoires during university and attribute moral meanings to their professional activity while transitioning from higher education to employment. Its purpose is to analyse the moral dimension of social mobility, focusing on the valuative frameworks through which graduates interpret their educational and occupational experiences. Methods Qualitative fieldwork was conducted between July 2024 and November 2025. Twenty semi-structured interviews were carried out with men and women aged 24–30 who had recently graduated from high- and low-mobility degree programs in public and private universities in Santiago, Chile. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, ensuring they were the first professionals in their families, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis with Atlas.Ti. Results The findings reveal that students’ initial experiences at university are marked by insecurity and a sense of inadequacy. Over time, they begin to value diversity, alongside personal effort and aesthetic taste, transforming the initial shock into diversification of valuative criteria. The appreciation of diversity is, however, coupled with a critique of economic injustice and the development of a sense of inequality. Conceptions of professional life reveal that the university degree is both a credential and a moral symbol, as it embodies dignity and respect. The moral meanings attributed to the profession reflect an interaction between values socialized within the family, mainly vocational and material, and those socialized during university and early professional experiences, such as social contribution. Discussion Social mobility through higher education involves moral transformations and redefinitions of self-worth. For first-in-family graduates, university enables new valuative repertoires, expanded horizons, and the possibility of reinterpreting one’s social position. The study contributes to the sociology of valuation and evaluation by showing how moral categories are mobilized in everyday practices of meaning-making. These categories are not abstract but situated, emerging from the lived experiences of students negotiating recognition and self-worth in stratified educational institutions. This research invites further reflection on how educational systems shape not just careers but moral worlds and social imaginaries of possible futures.