An extensive body of research has argued that obtaining a college diploma is a good deal for graduates on almost any measure – from college earnings to lower unemployment rates. By the aforementioned token, those without a college degree tin can find their upward mobility in the chore market limited by a lack of educational credentials: This survey finds that one-third of Americans who lack a 4-year college degree report that they have declined to apply for a job they felt they were qualified for, because that job required a bachelor'southward caste.

Merely despite the potential benefits and opportunities available to college graduates – and the potential challenges faced past those who lack a college diploma – Americans have somewhat mixed attitudes about the effectiveness of traditional four-twelvemonth colleges and other college education institutions. On a personal level, many college graduates describe their own educational experience as having a by and large positive impact on their personal and professional evolution. Roughly six-in-ten (62%) higher graduates with two- or iv-twelvemonth degrees think their degree was very useful for helping them grow personally and intellectually, while roughly half recollect it was very useful for opening up task opportunities (53%) or for providing them with useful job-related skills and noesis (49%).

Yet even as many college graduates view their own educational experience in positive terms, the public equally a whole – including a substantial share of college graduates – expresses reservations near the extent to which various higher education institutions prepare students for the workforce more generally. Just 16% of Americans think that a four-year degree prepares students very well for a well-paying job in today's economy, and 51% say this type of degree prepares students "somewhat well" for the workplace. Some 12% think that a two-yr associate degree prepares students very well (46% say somewhat well), and 26% feel that certification programs in a professional person, technical, or vocational field ready students very well (52% say somewhat well).

The purpose of college: Americans view workforce-relevant skills and knowledge as more important than personal and intellectual growth

Americans' views of what a college instruction should be tend to prioritize specific, workplace-related skills and knowledge rather than general intellectual development and personal growth. One-half of Americans say that the main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and cognition that tin be used in the workplace, while 35% think its master purpose should exist to help students grow and develop personally and intellectually and xiii% volunteer that these objectives are every bit of import. The public'due south views on this issue have shifted slightly in favor of skills development since the terminal time Pew Enquiry Center asked this question in 2022. At that signal, 47% said main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and knowledge and 39% said it should be to promote personal and intellectual growth.

Americans who have engaged in additional schooling beyond a available'due south caste are specially likely to say that the main purpose of college should exist personal and intellectual growth, rather than the conquering of specific skills and knowledge. Some 47% of those with a postgraduate or professional person caste think the main purpose of college should be personal and intellectual growth, while 35% think it should be instruction workplace-relevant skills.

In contrast, those with limited higher feel (or no college feel at all) are more than likely to prioritize the development of specific skills over general intellectual improvement. For case, 56% of Americans with a loftier school diploma or less say college should exist primarily a place to develop specific work-oriented cognition and skills, while just 31% see information technology primarily every bit a place for personal and intellectual growth.

In that location is also a partisan chemical element to these views, with Republicans and Democrats expressing highly differing opinions on the purpose of college. Democrats (including Democratic-leaning independents) are near evenly split up on which of these objectives is more than of import: 42% say colleges should prioritize personal and intellectual growth, while 43% say they should prioritize the development of workforce-relevant skills. But among Republicans and Republican leaners, 58% say that the main purpose of college should be teach specific skills – while merely 28% feel that the primary purpose should be general personal and intellectual growth.

These partisan differences hold true even later on accounting for differences in educational attainment. Democrats and Autonomous leaners with high levels of educational attainment are more than likely to prioritize personal and intellectual growth relative to Democrats and Democratic leaners with lower levels of educational attainment.

But Democrats and Autonomous-leaning independents at all educational levels are more likely than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents with similar levels of teaching to believe that personal and intellectual growth should exist the chief purpose of higher.

Along with Democrats and those who accept progressed beyond a available's degree, younger adults (those ages 18 to 29) are more likely than older adults to experience that personal and intellectual growth should be the primary purpose of higher: some 43% of 18- to 29-twelvemonth olds feel this way, compared with roughly ane-third of those in older age groups.

In addition, Americans who themselves work in the teaching field tend to place a greater emphasis on personal and intellectual growth every bit the principal purpose of college: 46% believe that this should be the primary purpose of a college caste, while 35% believe that college should mainly be a identify to develop specific skills and knowledge (19% of those who piece of work in the education manufacture consider them equally of import).

Almost college graduates regard their college experience as very useful for intellectual growth; views are more than mixed when it comes to job opportunities and marketable skills

When asked to assess certain aspects of their own educational experience, well-nigh six-in-x (62%) higher graduates (including those who graduated from a two-year degree program) feel that their fourth dimension in college was very useful in helping them grow personally and intellectually. Virtually half say their higher experience was very useful in helping them access job opportunities (53%) or in helping them develop skills and knowledge they could use in the workplace (49%).

The further people have progressed in their higher career, the more likely they are to consider their experience very useful. Those with a postgraduate or professional person degree are more likely to say that their college didactics was very useful in each of these respects compared with 4-yr degree holders, who are in turn more likely than those with a 2-year acquaintance degree to say that their education was very useful beyond each of these measures. For example, while two-thirds of those with a postgraduate or professional degree say their college education was very useful in opening doors to task opportunities, 56% of those with a four-twelvemonth degree, and an even smaller share (40%) among those with a two-year caste, say the same. And while 57% of those with more than than a bachelor'due south degree say college was very useful in helping them develop marketable skills, about one-half or a smaller share amid those with a iv- or ii-year degree hold this view (49% and 43%, respectively).

When it comes to helping them grow professionally and intellectually, majorities of those with a postgraduate or professional degree (77%) and those with a bachelor'due south caste (64%) say college was very useful, compared with 46% of those with a two-yr college degree.

Americans take mixed views about the extent to which college prepares students for a well-paying job in today's economic system

When asked a broader set of questions about the bear on of higher more than generally, the public expresses somewhat mixed views about the extent to which a college didactics prepares students for success in the workforce.

Ii-thirds of Americans (67%) think that a traditional four-twelvemonth caste prepares students for a well-paying job in today's economic system at to the lowest degree somewhat well, but but 16% think information technology prepares them very well, and 29% think it does not prepare them well. A somewhat smaller share of Americans (58%) think that a two-year community higher caste prepares students for a well-paying chore either very (12%) or somewhat (46%) well, while 38% think that these programs exercise not fix students well.

Interestingly, Americans with a 4-twelvemonth college degree are generally no more than positive – or negative – than those with less education virtually the relationship between a four-year degree and a well-paying job: xiii% of those with a bachelor's degree or more education say a four-yr degree prepares people very well, every bit do eleven% of those with a two-year acquaintance degree, 12% of those with some college experience simply no degree, and 17% of those with a high schoolhouse diploma. Among those who did not complete high school, however, xl% believe that a iv-year college degree does a very good job of preparing people for a well-paying job.

When information technology comes to assessments of a two-twelvemonth college caste, about one-in-vi (16%) Americans who hold this type of degree say it prepares workers very well for a well-paying job. This is considerably larger than the share of those with at least a available'southward caste (7%) who say a two-year degree prepares people very well, but non necessarily more positive than the views of those with less teaching.

Blacks and Hispanics are more probable than whites to say iv- and two-year degrees prepare people very well for a job in today's economy. For example, about iii-in-ten (29%) Hispanics and about a quarter (24%) of blacks say this about a four-yr degree, compared with 12% of whites. And while well-nigh one-in-5 blacks and Hispanics (18% each) say a 2-year acquaintance degree prepares people very well, one-in-ten whites share this view.

These findings are consistent with previous Pew Research Middle surveys that constitute that black and Latino parents view higher as more essential for their children's success than practise white parents.

A substantially larger share of the public has positive attitudes towards certification programs in a professional person, technical or vocational field in the context of workforce development. Some 78% of Americans think that these programs prepare students well for a job in today'due south economic system, including 26% who recall they ready students very well. Just roughly one-in-five (19%) remember they exercise not prepare students well. Information technology is of import to note, nevertheless, that respondents were not asked about the effectiveness of certification programs instead of a higher education.

Positive assessments of certificate programs as a fashion to prepare workers for jobs in today's economic system are particularly widespread among those who did not complete high school; 44% in this grouping say these types of programs prepare people very well, compared with almost a quarter (27%) of those with a high schoolhouse diploma and a like share of those with some higher, but no degree (22%), a two-year degree (28%), or a four-twelvemonth degree or more education (22%). Document programs are also peculiarly well-regarded among Hispanics, 39% of whom say they prepare people very well for a good task in today's economy. About a quarter of blacks (25%) and whites (23%) say the aforementioned.

Recent research has argued that there is a "credentials gap" in today'south workforce, as employers increasingly crave a bachelor'south degree for positions that did non demand this level of schooling in the past. And the survey finds that 33% of Americans who do not accept a four-year college degree written report that they accept declined to apply for a job they felt they were qualified for, because it required a bachelor's degree.

Americans who have engaged in some type of formal education beyond high school (short of obtaining a bachelor's degree) are particularly probable to believe they've been adversely affected by credentialing requirements equally they work their fashion upwards the educational ladder. Some 25% of Americans with a high school diploma or less and no boosted schooling across that have non practical for a job because of a bachelor's degree requirement. Merely that effigy rises to 34% amidst those with a high school diploma plus additional vocational schooling, to 38% amid those with some higher experience but no degree, and to 44% among those with a two-year associate degree. Put somewhat differently, as people receive additional formal instruction without actually obtaining a bachelor's caste, they may develop relevant skills without the on-paper credentials to match.

In addition, adults younger than 50 are much more likely than older adults to take refrained from applying to a job they felt they were qualified for considering they didn't meet the formal educational requirements. Well-nigh four-in-ten not-higher graduates ages eighteen to 29 (41%) and ages 30 to 49 (44%) say this has happened, compared with 31% of those ages l to 64 and only 12% of those 65 and older.