New survey: Most college students say professors encourage them to share their views

A new survey finds up to three-quarters of college students — of all political leanings —say their professors encourage them to share their views. It also found 2% of college students say they feel like they don’t belong on their campus because of their political beliefs.

That’s despite frequent headlines about political bias in higher ed and complaints that conservative-leaning students — and their opinions — are not welcome.

The findings come from the 2026 College Reality Check, put out by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation. Courtney Brown, vice president of Strategic Impact and Planning at Lumina Foundation, joined The Show to talk more about this.

Lumina Foundation

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Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Courtney, what to you are the key takeaways here?

COURTNEY BROWN: So this most recent report, really, you know, the biggest takeaway for me, I would say, is there's a real gap between what the public believes about higher education and what students are actually experiencing. We found that public confidence dropped from almost 60% about 10 years ago to just about a third last year.

It slightly rebounded a little bit over the last year, but it's still only about a third of Americans have a great deal of confidence in higher education. But when students and graduates are directly asked about their experiences, they're much more positive. Most say that, you know, the campuses support open dialogue, that they're learning career relevant skills and their degrees worth it. So that's the real tension we're seeing in this report. Public belief on one hand and student reality on the other.

BRODIE: Well, why do you think it is that there's such a disparity between what the public thinks about higher education and what those who have or are going through it think about higher education?

BROWN: You know, I think it's part of the narrative that exists out there about higher education right now. I think it has also become really political, unfortunately, over the last few years. What we've seen is that among adults in the public who lack confidence in higher education, number one reason that they lack confidence is they really cite politicization.

They think it's too political, which is really interesting because when we ask students do they feel like it's too political on their campuses, regardless of political party, both feel very comfortable on their campuses. So it's a really another interesting tension. It's just a very different narrative in the public than the real experience.

BRODIE: Yeah, well, I mean, what are the practical impacts of that?

BROWN: Well, there are huge impacts of that. So first of all, limited foundation. We really focus on increasing opportunity for more people to access and succeed in more education after high school. So that's really important. It's important for the individuals so they can get good jobs and have good lives. It's important for our communities. It's important for our nation.

And if more people aren't going to access and go get a degree or certificate or whatever, it really hurts our economies and our society. As the narrative turns more negative, fewer people are likely to go. They're afraid of it. They don't think it's a welcoming spot. They think it's too expensive. They, you know, they feel like they're not going to get a good job if they go. And that can really hurt the future of our country.

BRODIE: So the concern then is that if people who have not gone through higher education think badly about it, they won't go, which then leads to broader implications for sort of for society, for the economy of the country down the the road.

BROWN: Absolutely. I mean, the United States is in a good spot. Over the last 15 years, we've increased the percentage of people who have a degree or other quality credential after high school. We've gone from about 38% of people that had a degree to about 55% of Americans working age Americans who have a degree or a certificate or a certification after high school.

That's amazing. We need many more. But you know, right now we're at a different time. We have a lower birth rate. We have an aging population. And so we need to make sure that we're, we're continuing to skill and upskill more Americans, both for their own good and for society's good.

BRODIE: Do you see a time when higher education will become less politicized and we'll hear maybe less about it coming out of the mouths of politicians?

BROWN: I don't know. You know, I mean, I think that's a really, a really good question. And I think part of the problem is that higher ed and students don't do a good job telling their story and really explaining what's happening on campuses. You know, we saw that, you know, people think it's too political, but the reality that is only 2% say they feel that they don't belong because of their political views on campus. That's only 2% of current students.

Among adults who lack confidence, you know, I said many of them cite these political issues, but, you know, 64 to almost three-fourths of Democrats and Republicans and independent students say their professors encourage open dialogue. So I think if students can begin to tell a better story, I think if students experience can speak for themselves, then maybe the narrative can change and it won't be seen as political as it has been.

BRODIE: I mean, do you see that happening?

BROWN: I do. I think there, you know, I try to be more optimistic. I try to believe that it can happen. And, you know, even though students are saying they're having a good experience and that they feel like they have freedom of speech and their professors encourage all that, it doesn't mean that everybody is experiencing that. We don't have 100%. So there definitely is work that needs to be done.

So I think in order to change both the narrative out there and the real experience is that universities have to change. They have to make sure that it's a safe space for all students. They have to make sure there's freedom of speech, that people's viewpoints are able to be heard and listened to and taken in. And that's part of the learning process. They have to do a better job of explaining that to the public.

And I think the public also has to do a better job of actually questioning when they hear these stories. Is that reality. The reality lands somewhere between these two points. And I think we need to do a better job listening to each other across these differences. And that probably goes beyond universities. We all need to work better on.

BRODIE: I would think it would be really difficult though, to sort of get to the facts of a situation when it comes to higher education. If you're not sort of in the classroom and you don't know the people involved, it seems like it would be really hard to sort of get at what might have happened, you know, during a particular class period in a particular classroom, on a particular campus.

BROWN: Absolutely. And everybody experiences things differently. So even if you're in that same classroom, you may have that problem and not understand what happened. So I think that's one thing.

You know, one other area that I want to touch on though is, you know, one of the other reasons people are losing confidence is because they don't think that the credential is worth it. They don't believe that people are actually going to get a good job, that there's a misalignment between what's being taught in higher education and between the workforce. But again, the reality of students is different.

So about 90%, roughly nine in 10 students, say they're learning career relevant skills and that they believe their degree is going to help them to get a job. And then among graduates, so we also surveyed alumni, about three quarters said their degree was critical or important to their career success and they were able to get a good job within a year of completing. To me, that's a really powerful signal about value.

BRODIE: Well, so you mentioned value. I want to ask you about what respondents to your survey found and said about the cost. Because that's sort of traditionally been kind of a criticism, at least in some circles of higher education, is that, you know, it's too expensive. Maybe it's not as accessible to people as maybe it should be.

BROWN: Yeah. And you're right. Cost is real. Students absolutely feel it. So while, you know, a very high percentage in the 80s, 90% say the overall investment is worthwhile, only about 75% said the cost itself was worth it.

So I think there's like this, this challenge because students believe in the value. They believe there is something there. They believe that it's going to lead to a good job and a good life. But they're clear that affordability has to improve. They are clear that it's out of reach for them, that it costs too much.