New Surveys Contain Good & Bad News About How Americans View Higher Ed

Forbes

17-07-2025

Two new surveys highlight where Americans agree and disagree about higher education.
Two recent surveys about how Americans view higher education contain some unexpected good news for the nation's colleges and universities combined with reasons for continuing concerns.
The surveys — one conducted by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation and the other by the progressive think tank New America — show that Americans' overall confidence in higher education has increased recently, but that Republicans and Democrats continue to hold sharply divided opinions about some key matters even as they largely agree on others.
The Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey was conducted by telephone June 2-26 with a sample of 1,402 U.S. adults, including an oversampling of Black and Hispanic Americans. New America's ninth annual Varying Degrees survey about Americans' perceptions of higher education, was conducted in March, with more than 1,600 adults polled.
Here are ten take-aways from the two polls, starting with the good news.
This year, 42% of those surveyed by Gallup said they had 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in higher education, a six percentage-point gain over the past two years. Similarly, those saying they had little or no confidence declined from 32% a year ago to 23% today.
This gain in confidence represents the first time the Gallup survey has seen an increase in a decade, but confidence in higher education remains substantially below where it was in 2015, when a majority of Americans (57%) were confident about it.
Confidence among college graduates was up six percentage points to 48% in the new Gallup poll; while for those without a four-year college degree, confidence increased by seven points to 40%. Confidence among Democrats gained five points (to 61%), and for independents and Republicans it was up six points each — to 41% and 26%, respectively.
According to Gallup-Lumina, more Americans 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%).
However, partisan gaps are substantial on this matter; 66% of Democrats, 40% of independents and only 26% of Republicans are confident in four-year colleges. Political party gaps in confidence in two-year colleges are smaller than for four-year institutions because Republicans and independents are significantly more confident in two-year than four-year colleges, while Democrats now have similar confidence in each type of institution.
Compared to last year, more people — 12%, compared to 5% — who are confident in higher education cited the innovations that flow from it as a reason. Among the Gallup-Lumina respondents, 14% agreed that 'U.S. colleges are some of the best in world,' double the percentage of a year ago, and 24% pointed to the fact that U.S. institutions provide good training, up from 19% a year ago.
About three-quarters of U.S. adults agreed that higher education led to greater innovation and discovery in the Gallup-Lumina survey; 69% said it results in better jobs and career advancement; and 66% agreed that it promotes higher household incomes.
More than half of these respondents also believed that higher education makes the population more knowledgeable, gives the U.S. a competitive edge over other countries, and results in greater entrepreneurship and business creation.
New America's survey found similar results when it comes to the vision that Americans have for their colleges and universities. Nine in 10 Americans think that it's important for post-secondary education to train students for the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their chosen fields and help them become informed citizens. Similar percentages endorsed the importance of colleges improving students' ability to write and communicate well and to think critically There were only small differences between Republicans and Democrats on the importance of college cultivating these abilities.
Three in four Americans believe that education after high school offers a good return on investment for students, and 72% would recommend their children or close family members pursue at least some post-secondary education for a financially secure life. Republicans and Democrats showed minor differences in how they answered these two items.
Now, for some of the findings that should cause concern for higher education leaders.
In 2025, according to New America's survey, only about 40% of Americans think that higher education is fine as it is. Although that number has varied slightly the past few years, it did improve over last year, in line with the Gallup/Lumina findings. Still, most citizens, regardless of political party affiliation, perceive the need for higher education to make major changes in the way it operates.
In addition, only about half believe colleges and universities are having a positive effect on the country. While a majority of Democrats (74%) believe that institutions are having a positive impact on the nation, only a minority of Republicans (39%) feel that way.
Only about half of Americans think they can get an affordable high-quality college education, according to the New America survey. And here there is bipartisan concurrence, with 49% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans agreeing.
The major reason cited for students not enrolling in college or completing their degrees was the cost of attendance, endorsed by 66% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans.
Americans may agree that the cost of education is a problem, but New America found that they remain divided — as they have for some time — over who bears the larger responsibility for paying for it.
About half of the public believes federal and state governments should be mainly responsible for funding post-secondary education, while 45% think students and their families should fund education. There is a big partisan gap on this question, however. Among Democrats, 71% believe the government should assume the main responsibility for college funding, while 64% of Republicans believe that students and their families should bear the bigger burden.
When forced to choose who should fund higher education—government or students—the share of Americans choosing government has fallen from 67% in 2018 to 54% in 2025, a discouraging result for higher education officials seeking to build public support for larger government appropriations for their work. Nonetheless, 75% of Americans overall (91% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans) believe the federal government should spend more money to make college more affordable.
According to the New America survey, more than half of Americans (57%) believe that colleges are more welcoming toward politically liberal views; a third think colleges equally welcome liberal and conservative views, and a mere 9% believe they are welcoming towards conservative views. Two-thirds of Republicans say colleges are more welcoming towards liberal views, while half of Democrats do so.
Americans are also divided about whether they think that when exposing students to different ideas, colleges push their own viewpoints on students versus encouraging openness to diverse ideas. While 25% of Democrats believe colleges push their own views on students, 68% of Republicans think so.
The modestly encouraging findings from the two surveys are noteworthy because they come at a time when colleges and universities have faced months of criticisms and attacks from the Trump administration. From federal cutbacks in research funding to criticisms of the curriculum, allegations of antisemitism, challenges to international students, and claims that they are indoctrinating students with 'wokeness,' institutions have faced a steady campaign of negative rhetoric and financial pressure from the administration.
Although some of those critiques appear to resonate with portions of the public, the campaign may also be having something of a paradoxical effect. As Americans watch their colleges come under political attack, they may be beginning to rally to their support, discovering some common ground in recognizing the vital roles they play for individual well-being and the prosperity of the nation.