Word.ws English Dictionary

credential inflation

credential inflation noun: the phenomenon of academic credentials, particularly university degrees, dwindling in value and recognition on the job market due to easy availability and oversupply.

Noun

credential inflation (uncountable)

  1. The phenomenon of academic credentials, particularly university degrees, dwindling in value and recognition on the job market due to easy availability and oversupply.
    • The process of credential inflation is largely self-driven; it feeds on itself. A given level of education at one time gave access to elite jobs. As educational attainment has expanded, the social distinctiveness of that degree and its value on the occupational marketplace have declined; this in...2002, Steven G. Brint, The Future of the City of Intellect: The Changing American University, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 24

Origin of credential inflation

Coined by Randall Collins in 1979.

Questions about credential inflation

What does credential inflation mean?
Credential inflation means the phenomenon of academic credentials, particularly university degrees, dwindling in value and recognition on the job market due to easy availability and oversupply.
What part of speech is credential inflation?
Credential inflation is a noun.

Words near credential inflation in the dictionary

  1. credenda
  2. credendum
  3. Credenhill
  4. credent
  5. credential
  6. credential inflation
  7. credential stuffing
  8. credentialed
  9. credentialing
  10. credentialise
  11. credentialised

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: credential inflation (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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