Surprisingly, Republican and Democratic-leaning students do agree on some things. Public institutions of higher ed should listen to their common interests, for they run the risk of losing students if the state doesn’t.
Springing from their State of Higher Education 2022 study, the Lumina Foundation and Gallup have found that a majority of currently enrolled students—regardless of their political beliefs—are likely to reconsider where they’re currently enrolled based on the state’s legislative stance on:
- The teaching of certain viewpoints on “divisive” topics such as race, racism or gender
-
Access to reproductive health services
In a separate report that proved a substantial portion of high school graduates are likely to rule out a school based on state politics, both Republican- and Democratic-leaning students agreed that inhibitive stances on abortion and reproductive rights negatively influenced their perception of a potential school, too.
Over 6,000 U.S. adults currently enrolled in an associate degree, bachelor’s degree, certificate or certification program was selected to answer questions on these two surveys.
“Divisive” topics
When asked how important state laws on academic freedom were to their decision to stay enrolled in their current public institution, here is the proportion of student responses by likelihood, on a scale of one to seven:
- 7 (extremely important): 20%
- 6: 14%
- 5: 17%
- 4 (somewhat important): 23%
- 3: 9%
- 2: 5%
- 1 (not important at all): 12%
As a result, 74% of currently enrolled students say these policies are at least somewhat important in influencing their decision to stay enrolled in their institution.
At least half of all Democratic, Republican and Independent students said they deemed it somewhat important. Democrats had the highest proportion of students at 81%, Republicans the lowest at 64%.
“While these policies may be particularly attractive to the roughly one-fifth of all Republicans who would prefer to attend a college that prohibits instruction of certain viewpoints related to race or gender, this remains a minority preference even within Republican Party, and likely would not counterbalance the general public’s desire to attend unconstrained universities,” noted the report.
Among the three-quarters of students who deem it important, 77% prefer to attend a college in a state that allows instruction of all viewpoints related to potentially divisive topics.
More from UB: Emotional stress drives 55% of students to consider withdrawing
Reproductive rights
When asked how important state laws on reproductive rights were to their decision to stay enrolled in their current public institution, here is the proportion of student responses by likelihood, same scale:
- 7 (extremely important): 20%
- 6: 13%
- 5: 17%
- 4 (somewhat important): 22%
- 3: 9%
- 2: 6%
- 1 (not important at all): 13%
As a result, 72% of currently enrolled students say these policies are at least somewhat important in influencing their decision to stay enrolled in their institution, two points less than the previous report.
Party identification and gender did drive different degrees of support for this claim. Specifically, 76% of women claimed reproductive rights were somewhat important while 68% of men claimed this. Similarly, 80% of Democrat-leaning students found it somewhat important while 62% of Republicans did. Overall, though the claim gained the support of more than half of each demographic.
Among all students who agreed with the statement, 81% would prefer to enroll in an institution whose state system supports reproductive rights.
All in all, the Lumina Foundation and Gallup are concerned about downward trending higher education enrollment rates and legislative efforts at the state and federal level may jeopardize public higher education institutions even more.
