After a decade-long trend of lowering opinions of higher education, a new Gallup poll indicates an uptick in Americans’ confidence in two- and four-year institutions.
Forty-two percent of surveyed U.S. adults said they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, up from 36% in each of the past two years, according to Gallup. Meanwhile, the share with little or no confidence dropped to 23%, from 32% a year ago.
However, Gallup noted that the rate is still far from the 57% expressing confidence in higher ed when Gallup started the survey in 2015.
The results are based on a Lumina Foundation-Gallup phone survey of 1,402 adults. The findings are also based on another survey that separately measured Americans’ confidence in two- and four-year colleges. That survey found a similar pattern, with more Americans saying they are confident today than a year ago in both four-year colleges (up 11 points, to 44%) and two-year colleges (up eight points, to 56%).
The findings also show an increase in Republicans’ view of community colleges. Confidence in two-year institutions has increased more among Republicans (up 12 points to 48%) than independents (6 points to 53%) and Democrats (up 2 points to 69%).
“Party gaps in confidence in two-year colleges are smaller than the gaps for four-year institutions because Republicans and independents are significantly more confident in two-year than four-year colleges,” according to a Gallup summary.
So what’s leading the overall increase in opinions of higher ed? A larger percentage of survey participants indicated its the benefits of knowledge for young people, the training it provides, the quality of U.S. higher education and the opportunities it provides to graduates. Gallup also asked participants not keen on college for their reasons. Most of those individuals noted political stances or agendas, colleges not preparing students well for the workforce, and the cost of college.
What would make all respondents more confident in higher ed? Focusing instruction on practical career and job skills, lowering tuition and costs, and eliminating politics and political bias from the classroom, according to Gallup’s analysis.
