A new national survey finds that two-year colleges receive higher positive ratings than four-year institutions on six of seven attributes measured, from access to workforce preparation.
Traditionally, community colleges have done better in public opinion surveys on their value and access than four-year institutions, but results from a new survey by Gallup in partnership with Lumina Foundation offer more details and go beyond value.
The survey shows that two-year colleges were seen overwhelmingly better than four-year colleges in providing access to education for people from all backgrounds — 68% of survey participants rated two-year colleges “good” to “excellent” on this question, compared to 45% for four-year colleges.
On providing an affordable education, 54% gave good marks for two-year colleges, compared to 12% for four-year colleges. Breaking it down further, 23% said two-year colleges were “excellent” in this category, compared to just 4% for four-year institutions. In fact, the percentage of survey participants who rated four-year colleges as “poor” in this category is what stood out: 63%, compared to 20% who felt the same about two-year colleges.
Two-year colleges also received higher marks (good to excellent) for preparing students for the workforce: 52% versus 32%. Breaking it down, 14% said two-year workforce efforts were “excellent,” compared to 7% who said the same of four-years’ efforts.
Survey participants also leaned toward two-year colleges on providing a quality education, 61% compared to 50%.
The public also had higher opinions of the two-year sector in promoting free speech and respect for differing viewpoints. 46% saw two-year colleges as being good to excellent in this category, compared to 38% for four-year colleges.
In addition, two-year colleges had an edge in the public’s view when it came to preparing students to adapt to technological advances like AI — 47% versus 39%.
The one category that four-year colleges fared better in the public’s view was on finding new discoveries and advancing knowledge, with 53% giving four-years a rating of good to excellent, compared to 46% for two-years. Breaking it down, 17% said four-years did an excellent job and 36% said they did a good job. For two-year colleges, 11% said they did an excellent job, with 35% saying they did a good job.
The results are from the June 1-15 Lumina Foundation-Gallup Confidence in Higher Education survey.
