The Trump administration has not turned the spotlight away from higher education and especially the Ivy League. Last Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal published an analysis showing that Harvard alone could face a shortfall about a billion dollars if all President Trump’s plans and policies come to fruition.
How might this be playing out with voters? Data from the latest survey for Winning the Issues (June 12-14; 1,000 registered voters) sheds light on the latest brand image numbers for higher education.
Overall, colleges and universities have a favorable brand image (64-24 favorable-unfavorable), including among Democrats (81-10), independents (61-25), and Republicans (51-35). The Ivy League has seen a slight increase in favorables, going from 44-38 on the April survey to 48-33. As a result, the difference in the share favorable to each has decreased from a 21-point difference to a 16-point difference.
This change is largely due to independents. While there is little difference among Republicans (34-49) and Democrats (65-17) between now and April, independents now have a more favorable view of the Ivy League (47-33) than they did in April (38-44). The difference in the share of independents favorable to each has shrunk by 8 points, from 22 points to 14 points. Independents are still closer to Republicans than Democrats when it comes to their views of the Ivy League, but independents and Republicans are not identical in their views.
This dynamic can also be seen in the brand images of specific Ivy League universities. Harvard has over 50% of voters overall with a favorable impression (55-29), and both Columbia (48-28) and the University of Pennsylvania (46-19) have net favorable brand images. But while Republicans have a negative image of Harvard (37-49) and Columbia (35-45) and a neutral image of Penn (36-33), independents have more favorable views of Harvard (51-27), Columbia (44-26), and Penn (41-17).
As we’ve written before, the brand image is important because it provides a sense of the kind of environment (favorable, unfavorable), in which institutions are operating, crucial information as they try to assert themselves in response to the Trump administration. Previous data had suggested independents were a similar audience to Republicans in that they generally had a similar outlook on higher education. What this analysis shows is that independents may be starting to emerge as a key third audience.
