NORC-AP Poll on Trump's Treatment of Colleges
Survey
May. 2025
Sample Size:
1,175
Demographics:
US adults
Topics:
Funding
Partisan Divide
Administration
Top Findings:
- Six in 10 adults favor maintaining federal funding for scientific and medical research at colleges and universities while only about 3 in 10 support withholding federal funding from institutions for noncompliance with the president’s goals or removing their tax-exempt status.
- Sixty-four percent of adults think that colleges and universities make positive contributions to medical and scientific research and 63% feel they encourage new ideas and innovative technology.
- Over half of the public are concerned about the cost of tuition at colleges and universities and about 4 in 10 worry about antisemitism on campuses. Around a third are concerned about a liberal bias on campuses or the cancellation of international students’ visas.
- Those with a college degree are more likely than those without a college degree to be concerned about the cost of tuition (67% vs. 53%) and international student visas being canceled (43% vs. 30%).
- The public feels that liberals can most freely speak their mind on college campuses, with 4 in 10 saying that they can do so a lot. Three in 10 say students and professors can freely speak their mind a lot on campus, and only a quarter say the same about conservatives. Only 1 in 10 felt that any of these groups can’t express themselves freely at all.