American confidence in higher education has plummeted in the last decade, and Yale published a self-effacing report as to why.
In 2015, more than half of Americans (57%) said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education. In 2024, the number dropped to 36% — the lowest it’s ever been.
Meanwhile, a large majority (68%) say higher education is headed in the wrong direction.
The panel of 10 Yale professors who wrote the report said the slide is largely due to three areas:
- The cost of a university education is too high. Many believe the schools are “no longer worth the money and sacrifice they demand.”
- The college admissions system is inconsistent.
- Campus instruction is scrutinized for being politically biased.
Outside of these three concerns, the study also found issues related to trust within universities themselves. Respondents were concerned that grade inflation, new technology and bureaucratic expansion undermined Yale’s academic mission.
Universities are too expensive
For the 2026-2027 school year, Yale’s tuition is $72,000. With on-campus housing listed at an additional $12,080 and food at $9,520, one year at the Ivy League school comes out to a grand total of $94,100.
While the sticker price is higher than the median American income, about 20% of students at Yale attend on a full ride scholarship, including tuition, room and board, travel, books and personal expenses.
Nearly 90% of Yale graduates walk away from campus with no student loan debt.
“Beginning with the 2026–27 academic year, all families with incomes under $200,000 will qualify for free tuition, and those under $100,000 will have all billed expenses (tuition, housing, and food) fully covered,” the report said.
However, across all public and private universities, student debt has increased significantly in the past several decades.
In 2000, the average parent PLUS loan was $14,350. In 2020, it was $40,360.
The issues with Yale’s admission system
The complicated political climate of the 2010s and the 2020s has led elite universities to impossible-to-please admissions systems.
“Universities have been expected to be all things to all people: selective but inclusive, affordable but luxurious, meritocratic but equitable,” the professors wrote. “Rather than build public support, this diffusion of purpose has contributed to distrust.”
When comparing applicants with similar academic credentials, students from families in the top 1% of income distribution are substantially more likely to be admitted than middle- or upper-middle-income applicants, the report said.
In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that colleges cannot use race as a factor in admission decisions. The remaining categories that give a student a bump through the admission process, outside of academic standing, include whether the student is a varsity athlete or the child of an alumni, donor, faculty or staff.
“At Yale, the primacy of academic criteria should be non-negotiable,” the report said.
It concluded, “If the university claims that academic excellence is its mission, then its admissions process must visibly reflect that claim.”
Politics, free speech and intellectual pluralism
At Yale, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 36 to 1 across the Faculty of Arts and Science, the Law School and the School of Management.
Nearly a third of Yale’s undergraduate student body disagreed with the statement “I feel free to express my political beliefs on campus.”
“Students who self-identified as conservative reported lower rates of comfort, but discomfort appears to be rising across the spectrum,” the report said.
The report acknowledged the faults of ideological uniformity. “Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship,” they wrote. “Faculty at all levels worry that the wrong book on a syllabus or the wrong idea expressed on social media may damage their careers or get them fired.”
What can Yale do to fix its problems?
Yale — its students, faculty and administrators — needs more “self-scrutiny” and a new university-wide mission statement, the report concludes.
Instead of focusing on “improving the world” and fostering “an ethical, interdependent and diverse community,” the report writers proposed that a new mission statement reflect one currently found in the Faculty Handbook.
“Yale University’s mission is to create, disseminate and preserve knowledge through research and teaching,” the handbook states.
As for making an education at Yale more affordable, the report suggests that over time, the school should “substantially raise the income limit on the ‘no tuition’ guarantee for undergraduate students.”
Then, to make admissions fairer, Yale should only use criteria it is willing to describe publicly and defend openly, the report recommended. “The top priority in admissions decisions should be academic achievement,” they wrote.
To do this, they recommended establishing a public minimum standard of academic achievement necessary for consideration.
In regard to political discourse on campus, the writers recommended that Yale “undertake a multi-pronged series of initiatives and experiments, with the goal of enhancing open and critical debate on campus.”