Hmm. I'd say it's far more nuanced than that, and it might also vary from region to region. In Europe it's a bit of a trend to call everyone a software engineer and call it a day. This also means the higher education part flies out the window, as even in Silicon Docks (Dublin) companies stopped caring about that years ago. I will contend though that there is a pay-scale difference (and quite a big one) between software engineer and web developer. The reason however isn't the title but the industry developers tend to be in - web development agencies who build sites for a living. All day, every day. Those jobs pay considerably less.