Interesting Reads This Week

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What happened to summer? Here in the northern hemisphere it’s still hotter than hell, yet students are already heading back to school and university. So what did I read while hiding out in the still-cool, air-conditioned indoors?

The gap between perception and reality

For years I’ve dreamed about, and even threatened to carry out, a quick survey at a university. The idea was inspired by an old survey in which people on the street were asked how much of GDP the country spent on foreign aid. If I remember correctly, most guessed around 20% when the reality was less than 1%.

My version would have been aimed at fans heading into the local big state school’s Division I football or baseball game. The question: How much of the university’s funding comes from the state? I fully expected to see massive gaps between perception and reality. Alas, that project still sits in Morgan’s Big Book of Research Ideas She Never Did.

But in the UK, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) along with the Policy Institute and Kind College London actually got off the couch and ran a similar, fascinating survey. They assembled a panel of over 2,000 adults and asked them some basic factual questions about higher education, then compared the answers with reality. The public got a few things right (such as the proportion of under-30s with degrees), but some of the misperceptions were striking.

Graduate regret about attending university

Public perception was way off about the proportion of college graduate who regretted attending universities and who, if given the choice, would choose not to attend. There was a 32% gap between respondent guesses and self-reported data. Respondents were similarly off-base about the extent to which debt had negatively shaped graduates’ lives.

Tuition rates

For some time now, even in the US, we’ve been hearing about how tuition fees in the UK have failed to keep pace with inflation. As a result, the real value of those fees has eroded, creating significant financial strain for many higher education institutions. The average member of the public, however, appears far less informed about this reality, with only 17% of respondents guessing correctly.

Costs vs. revenue for core university functions

Survey respondents also failed to recognize that most core university functions—apart from educating international students—operate at a loss. Many of the survey’s findings are relevant in the US, but this one feels especially timely given ongoing debates about research funding as well as the sustainability of tuition rates.

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