The University of Utah and other public colleges and universities in Utah are feeling the effects of declining confidence in institutions of higher education nationwide.
One impact has been a decline in recent high school graduates who are interested in going to college.
“We are seeing a massive change in the attitudes towards higher ed nationally. I think those attitudes are also reflected here in the state,” University of Utah President Taylor Randall told members of a legislative committee on Tuesday.
A 2023 Gallup poll indicates confidence in higher education plunged from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2023.
“You will see that since 2015, there’s no public institution that seems to have lost more confidence (among) Americans than higher ed. I think that is something that we have to listen to, and we have to address,” Randall told members of the Utah Legislature’s Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
In Utah, a recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showed 52% of Utahns either had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in institutions of higher education in Utah. Conversely, 31% said they had “some” confidence in Utah’s colleges and universities and 14% said they had very little.