Seven-in-ten Americans now say the higher education system in the United States is generally going in the wrong direction – up from 56% who said this in 2020, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Pew Research Center conducted this survey to look at Americans’ views on the higher education system and how they rate its performance in specific areas.

For this analysis, we surveyed 3,445 from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection. Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, presidential vote (among voters) and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, the topline and the detailed methodology.