Dive Brief:
- Just 36% of surveyed adults said they think higher education in the U.S. is “fine how it is,” down 5 percentage points from last year, according to an annual survey from New America, a left-leaning think tank.
- Adults across the political divide shared this view — 39% of Republicans and 36% of Democrats agreed the sector is currently fine. A large majority of adults from both parties also agreed that cost is the biggest factor preventing people from attending college.
- The survey is the latest in a long string of polls that show confidence in higher education is falling. Despite this, U.S. adults still value college, with 75% of respondents saying they think postsecondary education provides a good return on investment.
Dive Insight:
Several responses to this year’s survey indicate that the “current state of higher education is trending downward,” according to the report’s authors.
For instance, just 54% of adults said the higher education sector has a positive impact on the country, down 16 percentage points from five years ago. And even though 75% of respondents indicated that college provides students a positive ROI, that share has fallen from 80% who said the same in 2019.
These trends are in line with other recent surveys. Almost one-third of polled adults said they have little to no confidence in higher education, according to research released earlier this month from Gallup and Lumina Foundation.
Despite these trends, respondents to New America’s survey indicated that they still believe college is an important stop on the road to financial security.
Just 26% of respondents said they believe their family members would only need to complete a high school diploma to be financially stable. Fourteen percent said the minimum level of education to reach this goal would be an associate degree, while 28% selected a bachelor’s degree.
“While a majority of Americans are unhappy with the way higher education operates, they still recognize the benefits of having a postsecondary credential and still want their children and family members to pursue one,” the report’s authors wrote.
Moreover, 68% of surveyed adults said they think an associate degree program is worth it even if students have to take out loans. An even higher share, 76%, said the same about bachelor’s degrees.
Still, respondents cited cost as a major pain point.
Nearly 9 in 10 agreed that cost is the biggest reason that Americans forgo college.
Moreover, the majority of both Republican and Democratic respondents agreed that the presidential candidates’ positions on college affordability will be important in deciding whether they will cast a ballot for them. Two-thirds of Republicans and 85% of Democrats cited this issue as important to their vote.
The survey was based on 1,705 responses fielded from March 1 to March 25.
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