Higher Ed Is Very Sorry
Universities are studying how they lost the public’s trust.
TL;DR
- Public confidence in higher education in the U.S. has fallen from nearly 60% a decade ago to 42% last year.
- Three major reports from Yale, Vanderbilt/WashU, and the AAC&U have been released, analyzing why universities lost public trust.
- The AAC&U report points to external factors like backlash against diversity initiatives and decreased state funding, offering few concrete reform ideas.
- The Vanderbilt/WashU report focuses on the subordination of knowledge pursuit to social justice goals and ideological commitments leading to shoddy scholarship.
- The Yale report is highly self-critical, blaming administrators for contradictory aims, convoluted pricing, opaque admissions, and grade inflation.
- All three reports are criticized for omitting the impact of political polarization, particularly Donald Trump's influence, on public trust.
- Despite omissions, the reports acknowledge internal failures and signal a willingness to address criticisms to regain public confidence.