A new Gallup poll conducted with the Lumina Foundation has found that most current college students trust their institution's leadership, despite a broader decline in American public confidence in higher education. The findings suggest students' first-hand experience diverges sharply from the wider public's growing scepticism, which is driven by concerns over cost, perceived political bias and doubts about the value of degrees for career success.

The poll found 55% of college students believe their school's administration usually acts with students' best interests in mind, with 12% saying this happens "all of the time" and 43% "most of the time"; around one in three said it happened only "some of the time", and roughly one in ten said "rarely" or "never". Students at top-ranked institutions were slightly less likely to trust their leadership, though confidence in campus administrators remained far higher than in elected politicians across the board. The survey polled 3,801 enrolled students aged 18 to 59 between 2 and 31 October, and comes as separate Gallup data shows only 38% of US adults now hold strong confidence in higher education, down from 42% the previous year, amid intensified political scrutiny of universities over DEI, antisemitism and viewpoint diversity.