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Americans' Confidence in Higher Education Shows First Uptick in a Decade

After nearly a decade of declining trust, Americans' confidence in higher education has finally shown signs of recovery, according to new data from a Lumina Foundation-Gallup survey released this week.

The survey found that 42% of Americans now say they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in higher education, marking a six-percentage-point increase from 36% recorded in each of the past two years. Simultaneously, the share of Americans with little or no confidence dropped from 32% to 23%.

Istockphoto 1349168267 612x612"This represents the first time Gallup has measured an increase in confidence in its decade-long trend," the report states, though confidence levels remain well below the 57% majority recorded when Gallup first began tracking this metric in 2015.

The telephone survey, conducted June 2-26 with 1,402 U.S. adults, included larger samples of Black and Hispanic Americans to ensure robust representation. Notably, confidence among these communities exceeded the national average, with 49% of Black Americans and 50% of Hispanic Americans expressing high confidence in higher education.

The uptick in confidence spans multiple demographic groups, suggesting broad-based improvement in higher education's public image. College graduates showed a six-percentage-point increase to 48%, while those without four-year degrees saw an even larger seven-point jump to 40%.

Perhaps most significantly, the survey revealed increased confidence across party lines. Democrats registered a five-point increase to 61%, while independents and Republicans each saw six-point gains, reaching 41% and 26% respectively. The report notes that Republicans had driven much of the decade-long decline in higher education confidence.

"Most of the decline in higher education confidence over the past decade had occurred among Republicans," the survey findings indicate, making the cross-party gains particularly noteworthy for institutional leaders.

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