“…Degrees from public universities, older and more prestigious, are the most sought positional goods, whereas public polytechnics, more oriented to local labor market needs, constitute the second‐best alternative (Tavares, 2013; Sá & Tavares, 2018). Portuguese polytechnics generally attract students from less privileged social backgrounds (Tavares et al., 2008; Sá et al., 2022), similar to what Calmand et al. (2014) found for the French case, as the vocational tracks allow greater access for students coming from a more diverse range of social backgrounds.…”