American Confidence in Higher Ed Hits Historic Low
Jessica Blake
July 11, 2023
A Gallup poll shows only 36 percent of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, which is down by about 20 percentage points from eight years ago.
Americans’ confidence in higher education is at an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll released today.
The poll was conducted in June and found only 36 percent of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, down about 20 percentage points from eight years ago. Prior measurements of public confidence in the nation’s colleges and universities found significantly higher levels in 2015 (57 percent) and 2018 (48 percent).
Researchers and education policy experts say college and university administrators and other higher ed officials should take notice of the sharp decline, especially because it was consistently high among all major subgroups of those polled.
