Higher Ed Confidence vs. Higher Ed Value
In an excellent article in New America this week, authors Kevin Carey and Sophie Nguyen question the generally accepted narrative that Americans are turning against higher education.
The idea that Americans are losing faith in higher education has become so commonplace that writers and speakers often state it as a well-known fact. Indeed, Gallup polling shows that Americans’ confidence in higher education has declined over the years they’ve conducted the survey.
However, interpreting this trend requires nuance in at least two ways. First, colleges are institutions, and Americans are losing confidence in institutions of all kinds. Public schools, Congress, media, the Supreme Court - you name it and American faith in it has eroded. This is true for colleges as well.
Second, we cannot ignore the role that politics plays in shaping perception of higher education. Repeated criticisms have inevitably affected the public’s view of the sector. And because higher education has been vulnerable to larger forces of political polarization, a person’s confidence in higher ed today is more likely to be impacted by their political party than it was in the past.
It is significant that Gallup’s survey asks people about their confidence in higher education, but not about the value of higher education. Value and confidence are very different ideas. Value is the relationship—often measurable—between what I pay and what I receive; confidence represents my trust in the institution to deliver a social good. Confidence is a feeling, value is a calculation.
While confidence is subject to political influence, the perceived value of a college degree is a less partisan issue. Put differently, value is less about red or blue and more about green.
While Gallup doesn’t have data on Americans’ perceptions of the value of college, we conducted a survey in 2023 of 1,000+ members of the general public that illustrates the difference between confidence and value. As a bonus, we asked participants about their political leanings as well.
When it comes to people’s confidence in higher ed, we found that only 40% of people believe higher education has a positive impact on the way things are going in society and there is a clear divide based on one’s political leanings:
However, when the same people are asked about the value of a college degree, 69% say a college degree is worth the investment. Moreover, the partisan divide is less prominent:
To be sure, there is still a difference between conservatives and liberals in their views on the value of a college degree, but it is far less pronounced than their confidence in higher education. Indeed, the difference between the 65% of conservatives who believe a college degree is worth the investment and the 74% of liberals who say the same is really quite small.
While confidence in higher education can be improved and is increasingly subject to political views, we would do well to remember that people are more optimistic about, and more aligned on, the value of a college education than we might think.
On a related note, we are co-hosting a webinar on a related topic next week: “Politics and College Choice.” Earlier this year, we partnered with Echo Delta to study the role that politics plays in where students go to college. If you are interested, the webinar will take place Tuesday, October 1 at 1pm ET and you can register here. I hope to see you then!