Educational Advisors

Industry News

Survey: 66% of adults say college doesn’t meet needs of today’s students

Survey: 66% of adults say college doesn’t meet needs of today’s students

Higher Ed Dive 

Lilah Burke
August 4, 2022
Dive Brief:
  • Adults across party lines are concerned about the high tuition, student debt and time commitments they associate with getting a college education, according to polling results released in July by Public Agenda, a nonprofit research organization. Two-thirds of respondents said they see colleges as “stuck in the past” and not serving the needs of today’s students.
  • Respondents were only moderately supportive of increasing public funding for higher ed generally. But they strongly supported specific state initiatives to expand college access and affordability, and 89% said all high school graduates should have an equal opportunity to get a college education, regardless of race, ethnicity or income.
  • Findings suggest that institutions may need to change what they’re offering to the public, while policymakers might have success winning public buy-in by being specific about plans and initiatives, said David Schleifer, vice president and director of research at Public Agenda.
Dive Insight:
While 86% of respondents said they believe that higher education can help working people advance their careers, just 64% said they believe people with only a high school diploma would make a better living if they had a college education. That is despite the fact that the earnings bump from a college degree is well-documented in data, with earnings for a bachelor’s degree holder averaging 84% more than the earnings of a high school graduate, according to research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
“People have a lot of really conflicted feelings about higher education,” Schleifer said. “People recognize the potential benefits, but they also recognize a lot of ways that higher ed as it currently exists isn’t necessarily working for people. It’s expensive. It takes a long time.”
At the policy level, the survey found more support for specific state initiatives aimed at affordability and job outcomes — such as creating more workforce and training programs, increasing financial aid for low-income college students, and offering interest-free student loans — than it did for general statements about increasing funding to public education.
Continue Reading

We have worked with schools across the nation who are accredited by national and regional agencies such as:

abhes
accet
accsc
ACICS
deac
naccas
National Association of Schools of Art and Design
NASM
tracs
wasc