(The Lion) — Roughly one-third of Americans believe college is “very important” – nearly 20 percentage points lower than in 2019, according to a recent Gallup poll.
“Most Americans still see value in having a college education (rating it at least fairly important), but they are far less likely today than even five years ago to consider it vital,” the report concludes.
Of more than 1000 adults, 35% rate college as “very important,” and 40% say it is “fairly important.” In 2019, 53% of adults said college was “very important,” and in 2010, 75% said the same.
Today, 24% of Americans say college is “not too important,” while in 2019, only 13% said this.
“All major subgroups of Americans express less support for higher education today than they did 12 years ago,” the report reads.
Adults with children under the age of 18 closely resemble the national average: 38% say college is “very important,” 40% say it is somewhat, and 21% say it is “not too important.”
Politically, Republicans are more likely to doubt both the importance and quality of higher education than Democrats. Nearly twice as many Republicans (39%) say college is “not too important” as those who say college is “very important” (20%). In contrast, 42% of Democrats say college is “very important,” and only 9% say it is “not too important.”
More women than men believe college is “very important” – 41% to 29%, respectively. Both men and women, however, believe college is less important than six years ago, marking a 16-percentage-point drop for men and a 15-point drop for women.
One possible factor for decline is growing criticism over the liberal bent found in most higher education institutions. One study this summer examined why Americans are frustrated with the content of universities. Of Americans who lack confidence in higher education, 38% cite politics as the reason, and 32% say universities teach the wrong things.
Twelve percent of Americans say colleges “push their own agenda” and do not “allow students to think for themselves” – a nine-percentage-point jump in just one year. The same study found 17% of Americans claim colleges are “too liberal” or “too political.”
While 28% of those surveyed in the Gallup poll cite costs or loans as a deterrence against collegiate education, a Pew Research study from 2024 reported only 22% of Americans say a college degree is worth going into debt. That same study reported 49% of Americans believe a four-year college degree is less important for securing a well-paying job than 20 years ago.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reform the college accreditation system, promising to “rebuild public trust in higher education,” “restore accountability,” and “promote academic freedom and intellectual inquiry.”
“American students and taxpayers deserve better, and my Administration will reform our dysfunctional accreditation system so that colleges and universities focus on delivering high-quality academic programs at a reasonable price,” Trump wrote.
