Survey on higher ed finds dissatisfaction
Among Millennials, only 13% say system works as it should
Looking for anWASHINGTON other thing that Americans are sour about these days? How about college?
A new survey of American adults finds that we are deeply split about the USA’s higher education system and increasingly frustrated with the costs.
While most of us still believe a college degree makes it more likely that a young person will be successful, only one in four of us believe that our higher education system is functioning as it should.
And the dissatisfaction is especially keen among Millennials, the generation that came of age in the last decade. They’re also the folks who have most recently been to college, lived a post-college life and dealt with the debilitating debt that often comes with it. And they’ve experienced the rising dropout rates at U.S. colleges: About four in 10 students who start a four-year degree now leave college without one.
Among Millennials, just 13% believe that our higher education system works as it should. The younger generation, known sometimes as “Generation Z,” has a slightly more generous vision, on par with that of most other Americans: 27% of them think things are working well on America’s college campuses.
The survey, out Thursday from the left-leaning Washington, D.C., think tank New America, also found that nearly six in 10 of us believe that colleges put their own long-term interests ahead of those of students.
“Folks are starting to realize that while institutional and student interests may often be aligned, they’re not always aligned,” New America’s Amy Lai- tinen said.
Among the bright spots: Community colleges are beginning to seem more promising to many Americans — more promising than either public or private fouryear colleges: While just 61% say public four-year colleges “are worth the cost,” 82% say the same about community colleges.
When it comes to public sentiment about the value of private four-year colleges, things get ugly: Just 43% say private universities are worth the cost; and just 40% say private for-profit universities are worth the cost.
Jeff Selingo, author of the 2016 book There Is Life After College, said rising costs are to blame for many of the negative findings in the New America survey.
“To me, it goes back to this idea that college for a growing number of Americans is further and further out of reach,” said Selingo, a visiting scholar at Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities.
Middle-income families — those that earn too much to qualify for federal assistance such as Pell Grants — are also being squeezed by rising costs, he said.
Selingo notes that even students from wealthier households are now turning to community colleges. Recent research shows that about one in four students at these schools now come from a family earning more than $100,000 a year.
“That’s a big change since the last decade,” Selingo said.