Americans are Divided on Whether Colleges that Brought Students Back to Campus Made the Right Decision
Survey
Oct. 2020
Sample Size:
10,332
Demographics:
US adults
Topics:
Covid-19
Learning
Value
Partisan Divide
Top Findings:
- Half of all U.S. adults say colleges and universities that brought students back to campus made the right decision, while 48% say they did not, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
- Views on whether colleges and universities made the right decision in bringing students back to campus are deeply divided along party lines, with Republicans and those who lean to the Republican Party more than twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to say bringing students back was the right decision.
- Overall, 30% of adults say a course taken only online provides an equal educational value compared with a course taken in person in a classroom; 68% say it does not. Majorities of Republicans and Democrats express this view, although Democrats are somewhat more likely than Republicans to say online classes provide an equal value (33% vs. 26%).
- About four-in-ten Americans (41%) say the higher education system in the U.S. is generally going in the right direction, while a majority (56%) say it’s going in the wrong direction. This is similar to 2018, when 38% of Americans said higher education was going in the right direction and 61% said it was going in the wrong direction.
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