New Polling from New America & Third Way on COVID-19’s Impact on Current and Future College Students

Event Details

When

September 1, 2020

10:30 AM to 11:00 AM

We’ve all watched with bated breath over the last few weeks as colleges and universities across the country have attempted the ultimate juggling act: reopening campuses while working to keep students healthy. And unfortunately, it has turned out to be mission impossible. We know coronavirus will have long-lasting impacts on our nation’s higher education system – a system that was already facing intense scrutiny over the value and quality they deliver to students. But to date, relatively little has been published on how students are adapting to changes in the higher ed system and how well the higher ed system is adapting for them.

That’s why Third Way and New America partnered together, with the support of Global Strategy Group, to conduct a new round of public opinion research that offers fresh perspective on how the pandemic is impacting current and prospective students’ decision-making when it comes to higher ed.

The nationally-representative survey tested 1,407 college students with oversamples of 223 caregivers, 253 Black students, and 311 Latinx students, as well as 211 high school seniors nationwide.

To dig into the survey findings, Third Way’s Director of Education, Tamara Hiler, and Rachel Fishman, Deputy Director for Research with the Education Policy Program at New America, joined together for a call with members of the press.

You can check out the toplines of the student survey here, read a memo outlining three of the biggest findings from the survey here.