A Resource for Scholars
Each year the Panetta Institute commissions a nationwide survey of college students to gauge their level of interest in politics and civic involvement. The results are made available to scholars and the public, and also help guide and inform our own course offerings and leadership training programs.
U.S. college students are worried about their job prospects in a still-shaky economy and a majority say they feel “uncertain and concerned” about the country’s future, according to a new national survey by the Panetta Institute for Public Policy. The student confidence level in finding an acceptable job after graduation is at its lowest level in the ten-year history of the survey. Yet students are much less pessimistic about the country’s direction than they were two years ago, before the start of the financial crisis, and more confident than today’s adults overall.
The annual survey shows 53 percent of students saying the U.S. is headed in the right direction and 39 percent saying things are off on the wrong track. By contrast, just 33 percent of all adults feel the country is on the right track, according to a recent national poll, while 59 percent say wrong track.
“Although students are more worried about getting a good job after graduation, we see a remarkable amount of optimism among students in the face of continuing bad news,” said Institute director Sylvia Panetta.
Although President Obama no longer gets the stratospheric ratings on campus that he enjoyed in the wake of his inauguration last year, two-thirds (66 percent) of college students still say they approve of the job he is doing, compared with just 48 percent of the general public. Likewise 66 percent of respondents in this study feel Obama “understands the needs of college students,” while only 21 percent, for example, say the same of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Conducted by Hart Research Associates, the April 5 to 11 survey explores a wide range of questions, including college students’ expectations about their future careers and economic prospects, the 2010 congressional elections, various social attitudes and issues, and student interest in public service.
When students are asked to pick the one or two issues that are “the most important to you personally,” the top three choices this year, dwarfing all others, are core pocketbook concerns. “Improving the job situation” leads the list at 61 percent – a 33 point increase from April of 2008 – followed by “dealing with the costs of college education” at 40 percent and “improving the healthcare system” at 31 percent.
“Addressing global warming,” by contrast, is a top choice for just 15 percent – an eight-point drop from two years ago – and “defending the country from future terrorist attacks” is picked by only 16 percent.
A question about students’ worries yields further evidence that the economy is more than an abstraction on college campuses today. More than two-thirds of students (68 percent) say they worry often about finding “a good-paying quality job” after graduation. Another 44 percent worry often about carrying too much student loan debt.
It may come as no surprise, therefore, that a strong majority of students (64 percent) support the federal government’s recent takeover of the national student loan program from private banks and financial institutions, a move that substantially lowered the interest rates students will have to pay.
While President Obama might find encouragement in his job rating among students, congressional Democrats facing an election this fall have reason to be concerned. As in past Institute surveys, students now favor the generic “Democratic candidate” for Congress over the Republican by a significant amount (44 percent to 32 percent), but that margin is considerably narrower than it was in the previous non-presidential election year of 2006, when Democrats were favored 46 percent to 20 percent.
In addition, students who came out to vote in large numbers for President Obama in 2008 may be less likely to vote this year. The portion of students who say they’re paying either “a lot of attention” or “some attention” to the coming election has dropped from 82 percent in April of 2008 to just 44 percent today.
Located on California’s Monterey Bay, the Panetta Institute conducts its annual campus survey chiefly to measure the level of student interest in politics and civic life and to help guide its curriculum, which is aimed at preparing students for lives of public service.
This year’s survey shows a continuing long-term rise in student interest in working for government. Only 26 percent of college students expressed interest in government service when the Institute first asked the question in 2001, but the number now stands at 42 percent.
Some of this rise may be tied to economic concerns, Mrs. Panetta speculated, since government jobs are often perceived to be more secure than those in the private sector. Still, she said, “We take heart from the fact that so many students appear to view public service as a positive, worthwhile pursuit.”
Student interest in working some day for “a not-for-profit community organization or foundation” also continues to run quite high at 37 percent, up from 34 percent a year ago. Interest in military service, however, stands at nine percent, essentially unchanged since 2005.
Meanwhile, 26 percent of students say they would be interested in running for a federal elected office some day if the opportunity should arise, a figure that has changed only slightly from last year (24 percent), while interest in running for a state or local office is up significantly – 35 percent this year versus 28 percent in 2009.
Other notable findings in this year’s survey include:
- Student confidence in finding an acceptable job after graduation, now at 64 percent, is the lowest ever in the ten-year history of this survey.
- Students are much more likely than the general public to support passage of the recently signed healthcare reform law. Three out of five (60 percent) say it was a good thing, compared with 49 percent of adults overall.
- Only 42 percent of students believe the war in Iraq has been successful, while 57 percent view it as unsuccessful. Views of the war in Afghanistan are more evenly divided, with 47 percent calling it successful and 51 percent unsuccessful.
- Student support of same-sex marriage continues to grow – rising from 52 percent in 2004 to 65 percent today.
- Student interest in teaching some day in a public school has fallen for four years in a row, dropping from 45 percent in 2006 to just 28 percent in this survey.
- More than four out of five students (83 percent) say they are either very or fairly satisfied with the education they have received so far in college, although many express concerns about affordability.
- Most students (52 percent) cite Internet news websites as their top source of information about politics and civic affairs, with television news running a close second. Only 10 percent cite a community or city newspaper as a top source, down from 21 percent in 2001.
For this year’s survey, Hart Research interviewed 1,009 students enrolled at four-year colleges across the nation, 502 of them by phone and 507 online, from April 5 to 11. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with higher margins for specific subgroups.
Past Surveys
College Students Much More Optimistic Than Last Year Despite Economic Downturn
(5/13/09)
In our 2009 survey, we found that although U.S. college students knew they face challenges in the deeply troubled economy, they were far happier with the direction of the country and with its political leaders than they were a year ago. Overall a majority of students felt the country was heading in the right direction. Students were hopeful that President Obama would be able to bring real change and 73 percent said they are satisfied with the country’s political leadership overall, the highest in the survey’s history. more>>
College Students Deeply Worried About the Economy and Jobs, Eager for New Leadership (5/1/08)
In our May 2008 survey, we found that although opposition to the war in Iraq remained strong on U.S. campuses, American college students were even more worried about the state of the economy. College students were eager for a change in national leadership and expressed deep disappointment with the nation’s political leadership. Despite declining confidence in the country’s general direction, student interest in the national political scene was on the rise and substantial numbers of students included careers with a public service focus among their preferred career choices. more>>
U.S. College Students See Nation on Wrong Track, Support Iraq Withdrawal (5/5/07)
In our April 2007 survey, we found a growing percentage of U.S. college students believing the nation is headed in the wrong direction, and an overwhelming majority supporting a specific timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Students also expressed deep dissatisfaction with the quality of the country’s political leadership and nearly half said they would favor the creation of a new independent political party. more>>
College Students Believe Country Headed in Wrong Direction; Growing Majority Uninterested in Careers in Government (6/17/06)
Our June 2006 survey showed the nation’s college students were unhappy with the current path of the country, but they expressed little interest in becoming involved in government. In a poll conducted by Hart Research Associates for the Panetta Institute, 53% of students said the country was headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 15 points from a similar survey conducted in 2005. 71% said they were not interested in careers in public service. more>>
College Survey Finds Growing Majority Uncertain and Concerned About Country’s Future (6/12/05)
In our 2005 survey, college students expressed a growing anxiety about the future. The Hart Research Associates poll found that 55% of college students were uncertain and concerned about the country’s future, an increase of five percentage points from the previous year’s findings. Students were increasingly concerned about the country’s moral and ethical values and had become focused on national, rather than international, issues. more>>
Poll Shows Big Decline In Student Interest In Politics and Voting (6/9/04)
Both major-party presidential candidates faced big challenges on U.S. college campuses in 2004, according to a Panetta Institute survey. The Hart Research Associates poll found a major decline in students’ perceptions that voting really matters. The number of students who said they volunteer to help in their local communities was down also. more>>
U.S. College Students Question Long-term Impact of Sept. 11th (5/31/02)
By wide margins, U.S. college students in 2002 believed that positive changes in Americans’ behavior in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were mostly temporary, and that poorly performing schools were a greater threat to our country than terrorism. Yet these same students reported much greater interest in the actions of the federal government since the events of 9/11, and they were significantly more focused on international threats to U.S. security. more>>
Survey Of College Students Shows Potential For New Wave Of Activism, But Little Interest In Conventional Politics (05/02/01)
Forty years ago, something began to stir on the nation’s campuses. In March 1961, President John F. Kennedy, sensing the potential idealism of the nation’s youth, signed an executive order creating the Peace Corps, and a few months later, the first cohort of Peace Corps volunteers embarked for Africa. That same year, college students traveled south to join more>>
Though Few Students Vote, Poll Shows Them Still Interested in Issues and Upbeat About the Country (4/25/00)
A nationwide survey of college students conducted for the Panetta Institute in 2000 revealed that although student voter turnout had been low in that year’s presidential primaries (only 17 percent of those eligible), these young people remained interested in the national policy debate and held a more optimistic view of the country’s condition than did other adults. more>>
Institute Poll Shows College Students Turned Off By Politics, Turned On By Other Public Service (1/13/00)
Our 1999 national survey showed that college students had little interest in politics or political careers but nonetheless were remarkably civic-minded and public-spirited. In a study conducted for the Panetta Institute, the Mellman Group found that nearly three-fourths of college students said they had recently done volunteer work for an organization or cause they believed in. more>>