Higher education "can and must renew American democracy." In fact, the two are linked in more ways than you might think, new research suggests.

Colleges and universities, on average, are admitting a larger proportion of their applicants than they did 20 years ago, new research by the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute finds. The median acceptance rate at bachelor’s degree-granting universities and colleges was 7.6 percentage points higher in 2022 than it was in 2012, AEI found.

The cost of higher education, like the cost of everything in the current environment, will continue to be a concern. But a quick look over the data confirms there is still great value in higher education.