New poll shows strong rise in public confidence in HE

The percentage of Americans reporting that they have confidence in the nations’ colleges and universities rose strongly in the past year, according to a just-published study conducted for the Lumina Foundation by the Gallup organisation.

While still 15 percentage points below the 57% of Americans who reported confidence in their institutions of higher education a decade ago, this year’s figure of 42% is 6 percentage points higher than last year’s figure, recorded in the wake of the pro-Palestinian encampments that sprang up on college campuses following Israel’s invasion of Gaza to destroy Hamas.

“Confidence in higher education has increased for the first time in nearly a decade, up to 42% from 36% just in the past two years. Confidence has increased across all major subgroups.

“So that includes college graduates, non-college graduates, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Republicans, and Democrats. Republicans are up six points compared to where they were last year,” said Courtney Brown, PhD, vice-president of impact and planning for the Indianapolis, Indiana-based Lumina Foundation, an NGO that works to increase opportunities for access and success in tertiary education for all Americans.

The telephone survey of 1,402 adults across America was conducted between 2 and 26 June.

Confidence is ‘a relative concept’

Confidence rose for both 4-year colleges and 2-year community colleges (many of which act as ladders, affording graduates the ability to transfer into the junior year of studies at their state’s public universities).

Fully 93% of respondents reported at least some confidence in community colleges, up from 90% last year. Of these, this year 56% (up 8%) said that they had either “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in these institutions, which are closely tied to their local area.

A strong majority of Democrats, 69% (a rise of 2 percentage points), reported having confidence in community colleges. Among both Independents and Republicans the increase was significantly larger, 6 and 12 percentage points since last year, to 52% and 48%, respectively.

Confidence in 4-year colleges and universities increased by seven percentage points. The number of respondents who reported either “very little confidence” or “some confidence” declined from 28% to 21% and 38% to 34%, respectively.

By contrast, the number of respondents reporting “quite a lot” of confidence increased by four percentage points to 26% – while those who have “a great deal” of confidence increased to 18% from 11%.

Two-thirds of Democrats reported having confidence in America’s 4-year colleges, an increase of 8 percentage points. Support by Independents increased by a greater amount (10%), which increased the percentage of these voters who have confidence in college and university to 40%.

Confidence in colleges and universities among Republicans rose 11%, meaning that this year just over one-quarter of Republicans reported confidence in America’s institutions of higher education.

Since Gallup was in the field during a month when President Donald J Trump and his cabinet secretaries were attacking Columbia, Brown, and, especially, Harvard universities, as well as while news of cuts in research grants by the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities was in the news, interpreting these findings is difficult: do they show support for the president’s higher education agenda or for universities and colleges?

While he finds the results somewhat paradoxical, Dr Gerardo L Blanco, who teaches at and is academic director of Boston College’s Center for International Higher Education in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, told University World News that they make sense.

“Confidence, as measured by these surveys, is a relative concept. How much do people trust higher education in comparison to other social institutions? Since the federal government has focused on attacking universities, it is impossible to establish a binary relation between the federal government and higher education institutions.

“Who does the public trust more? Linda McMahon and Donald Trump, or the universities that, like Harvard, despite severe pressures, are trying to uphold their founding values?

“I think the survey reveals the answer. I also think that as this federal administration is attacking universities, colleges and universities are bringing the message about the benefits that they provide directly to the public opinion. They probably should have been doing that all along, but the survey results are encouraging for the sector,” said Blanco.

Wesley Whistle, Project Director, Higher Education for the Washington, DC-based left-leaning think tank New America, agrees that the uptick in support for colleges and universities may be “surprising given the recent wave of political attacks on colleges from President Trump and those on the right”.

But he notes: “The fact that trust is rebounding despite that politicisation suggests Americans may be distinguishing between institutions themselves and the political battles surrounding them,” he wrote in an email to University World News.

Whistle also referenced New America’s own report on higher education, Varying Degrees 2025: Americans Find Common Ground in Higher Education (Varying Degrees), coincidentally, published on 16 July.

The fact that 86% of adults without a degree believe higher education ‘pays for itself within 10 years’ and 58% say it does so within five, says Whistle, “underscores a deeply pragmatic view among the public: higher education is valued for its role in economic and career mobility. Clearly, one of the lenses through which Americans define higher education is return on investment, tangible outcomes, and workforce readiness.”

Drilling down into the details

The Gallup-Lumina study drilled down into why respondents were confident or were not confident in higher education.

For the most part, this year’s responses by those who are confident in colleges and universities were similar to last year’s. This year 30% indicated the value of education, while last year 27% did. Last year 19% agreed with the theme that higher education provides good training, while this year 24% did.

In three areas, this year’s respondents differed significantly from last year’s. The percentage who supported colleges and universities because they are “at the forefront of innovation” more than doubled: from 5% to 12%.

Gallup-Lumina did not ask its respondents where this belief comes from. But, as has been covered in these pages, one of the main arguments that Harvard and Columbia have made to counter cuts by the Trump administration is that they are engines of innovation in medicine, technology, and military development. (The study found that three-quarters of respondents believed the nation benefitted from universities’ innovation, scientific, medical, and technological discoveries.)

While the percentage of respondents who pointed to the quality of education as the reason for their confidence in colleges increased from 13% to 17%, the subtheme about the quality of professors, instructors, and administrators declined from 7% to 4%.

Interestingly, this category’s other subtheme, “US colleges are some of the best in the world,” increased by 7 percentage points to 14%.

Both could be linked to the raucous debate about colleges and universities in the US, which includes Republicans claiming that professors are left-wing ideologues and supporters of colleges and universities arguing loudly that schools like Harvard and Columbia are among the world’s best universities.

Lack of confidence in political agendas

Almost four in ten (38%) of respondents who indicated they had little confidence in colleges and universities gave as their reason the belief that these institutions were driven by “political agendas.”

Given the Republican attacks on liberalism in higher education, the rise from 12% to 17% in the subtheme that the schools are “too liberal” is to be expected. So too is the rise from 3% to 12% in the belief that students are not allowed “to think for themselves.”

The study also found that those who answered that their lack of confidence was based on the belief that colleges are wrongly focused and “Don’t teach right things” declined from 35% to 32%.

During the month that Gallup was in the field, Congress was debating House of Representatives Bill 1, the omnibus budget bill Trump dubbed the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ that was signed on 4 July. Part of this debate focused on the high cost of college tuition and its contribution to the high student debt (US$1.6 trillion).

Somewhat surprisingly, the percent of respondents who cited “costs [and] expenses” as the reason for their lack of confidence in higher education declined by one-third, from 35% to 24%. Those who cited the subtheme “Too Expensive” declined from 30% to 21%, while those concerned about student debt declined by a similar percentage: from 7% to 4%.

(This decline, Brown explained, may be due to the fact that when respondents were asked about why they lacked confidence in American higher education, they responded with the issue that was top-of-mind, that is, they were not prompted.)

Faith in university administrators has fallen to the low single digits. Last year, 12% cited lack of faith in university administrators as the reason for their lack of overall confidence in higher education; this year, this figure fell to 3%.

Career-focused teaching

A plurality of Americans want colleges and universities to become more career-focused. When asked, “What are some of the specific things colleges and universities could do that would make you more confident in higher education?”

30% of respondents answered that they should “Focus on practical teaching.” The largest subtheme, 20 percentage points, specified that colleges should “Focus on useful education pertaining to [a] career.”

“Despite the rise of micro- and alternative credentials, it is clear that the public continues to see colleges and universities as the prime space for gaining entry to the workforce. Career preparation had been, perhaps, taken for granted in the messaging from universities,” Blanco said.

Referring as well to the finding that 69% of respondents believe that higher education leads to better jobs, promotions, and career advancements and that 66% believe it leads to higher household incomes, Blanco said: “The public opinion message is now very clear, and I hope higher education institutions will highlight the important workforce development activities they already undertake.”

The 38% of those who indicated that they lacked confidence in colleges and universities because of perceived political agendas explains why 22% of all respondents answered that they wanted these institutions to “be less politically biased.”

DEI differences of opinion

Varying Degrees, which surveyed 1,321 individuals over 18 years and older, 1,583 via a web survey and 48 by telephone, found that almost the same percentage of respondents valued higher education for providing a skilled and educated workforce for the economy, 70%, as did Gallup-Lumina for the question about better jobs, promotions, and career advancement, 69%.

Gallup-Lumina’s finding that 63% valued higher education because it produced a more knowledgeable population is right in the middle between New America’s finding that 60% valued higher education because it helps “students become informed citizens” (60%) and helps “students become critical thinkers” (67%).

One area where the two studies found significant difference concerns what can be called DEI issues. Gallup-Lumina found that only 45% of respondents valued higher education for how it increased compassion for and tolerance of others,” with fully 37% disagreeing with this statement.

By contrast, Varying Degrees found that 92% of respondents said that “Creat[ing] an environment where students of all backgrounds feel supported” was either “Very important” or “Somewhat important” to them.

Importance of innovation

According to Brown, one of the most interesting findings of the Lumina study was not just that confidence in higher education is growing, but also the fact that the reasons respondents give for valuing higher education differ from previous years.

“They really brought out the importance of innovation and the training and the knowledge that comes out of higher ed, as well as the global quality that doubled from last year. People were saying that it’s the best in the world. It makes us competitive globally.

“It’s really interesting that those have come up as top reasons, where, in the past, the top reasons were because it prepares you for a good job, you can make more money, or it provides you with knowledge.

“This year those who are increasingly confident, or are confident, are [saying] about the sector that it drives innovation, something that drives knowledge, something that drives global competitiveness,” said Brown.