Public confidence in higher education dropping

Six out of 10 Americans feel universities are more interested pursuing bottom lines than quality educations, according to a new study.

These findings, from a series of surveys conducted in December 2009 by research organization Public Agenda for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, point to a trend of increasing skepticism among the public toward college administrations.

Of the 1,031 Americans surveyed, the majority felt universities could admit a lot more students without lowering quality or raising prices, and that colleges could spend less and still maintain a high quality of education.

Sixty-four percent felt that federal stimulus money should be used to hold down tuition and fees, even if it means universities will have less to spend on operations and programs.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has been conducting surveys with the assistance of Public Agenda since 1993. The ongoing study has documented two prominent trends in American public opinion: a belief in the necessity of higher education as a guarantor of success and a concern that this education is becoming increasingly less available to qualified students.

According to Public Agenda’s findings, published in “Squeeze Play 2010: Continued Public Anxiety on Cost, Harsher Judgments on How Colleges are Run,” these two “colliding trends” have created a “squeeze play,” as the public invests more importance in higher education while perceiving it as less available.

“Clearly one factor in Americans’ concerns about access to higher education is their perception of the escalating cost of tuition and fees at colleges and universities. Today, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) continue to say that higher education prices are rising at a faster rate compared to other things, up seven percentage points from 2007,” the study reported.

Public concern over rising costs “remains at record highs,” according to the published study.  Eighty-three percent of those surveyed said they felt students have to borrow too much to cover the cost of tuition, and 65 percent said they thought college prices were growing at a faster rate than other things.

With the rising cost of tuition, the number of parents of high school students who believe their children will attend college has dropped since the recession. In 2007, 61 percent of those surveyed felt it was likely their child would continue their education after graduation. The latest survey revealed that the number has fallen to 59 percent.