America's Views on College

Where the Public Sees Value in Higher Ed

The Chronicle asked more than a thousand adults how well colleges serve students and society. Explore the data to find points of confidence and doubt, consensus and divergence.

By Jacquelyn Elias and Brian O’Leary November 6, 2023

Americans’ views on higher education are not monolithic. Opinions vary markedly — by subgroup and by which aspects of colleges people are considering. Find out who said what about how degrees help graduates, how college compares with alternatives, how important different functions are, and more.

You can filter by five different demographic factors, and group by which category people were evaluating or what response they gave. And scroll down for a full methodology, topline data report, and contact information to share any feedback. More coverage of our survey is available here.

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Explore the survey

We asked respondents: Overall how good a job do you think colleges do educating their students?

Male

Female

Methodology

Results are from a representative, random-sample national survey of 1,025 adults produced for The Chronicle by Langer Research Associates. Field work was conducted in July and August 2023 via the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel, in which participants are randomly recruited via address-based sampling to take surveys online or by telephone. Results have an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points; error margins are larger for subgroups.

“Minimum difference for statistical significance” as indicated above the charts applies to all values in a given chart (e.g. all displayed values beneath a heading). Note that this is the value at which all differences displayed are statistically significant; some of the values below this mark may also be significant. This is due to variances of group size and the influence of the value itself on the calculations. Please contact us at data@chronicle.com with any questions.

Additional Resources from Langer Research Associates

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.

About the Author

Jacquelyn Elias

Jacquelyn Elias is a news applications developer for The Chronicle of Higher Education. She builds data visualizations and news applications. Follow her @jacquelynrelias, or email her at jacquelyn.elias@chronicle.com.

About the Author

Brian O’Leary

Brian O’Leary is an interactive news editor at The Chronicle, where he builds data visualizations and other interactive news products. Email him at brian.oleary@chronicle.com.