Gen Z's Distrust in Higher Ed a 'Red Flag'

In The News Piece in Inside Higher Ed
Shuttlestock
Aug. 12, 2022

Rachel Fishman was quoted in an "Inside Higher Ed" article about Gen Z's Distrust in Higher Ed.

About 49 percent of Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) who took the survey said they tended to trust American colleges and universities along with 53 percent of Generation Xers (those born between 1965-1980) and 55 percent of Baby Boomers(those born between 1946-1964.

Rachel Fishman, interim director of the higher education team at New America, a Washington think tank, said she has seen a generational divide in how colleges and universities are viewed, particularly when comparing younger generations with older ones. New America conducts an annual survey on higher education that this year found a drop in the percentage of Americans who said colleges and universities were having a positive effect on the country.

"The younger you are, the more challenges you find with higher education in terms of price and what you get … ," Fishman said. "The lived experiences of millennials and Generation Z with higher ed is different than other generations."

But Fishman noted that "trust is a wishy concept when it comes to higher ed" and subject to individual interpretations.

"Is it trust that higher education institutions are doing right by their communities? Is it trust that they are doing right by their students, that they are pricing things correctly and that the quality is there?" she asked.

Fishman added that trust in higher education could also mean different things to different generations. Younger people might be less trusting because they are enrolling in college at higher rates than older generations and are questioning whether their institution will do right by them.

Meanwhile, older generations could take a broader view of the trust question and view higher education at a more social level (in terms of the public good it provides) "which is a different concept," she said.

Read the full article here