Squaring the Circle: How Higher Ed Can Rebuild Trust When Students Still Believe in the Dream

By idfive Staff \ October 17, 2025

Public trust in higher education is eroding. At least, that’s what the data—and the headlines—tell us.

In our 2024 insight, “Public Trust in Higher Education Is Plummeting: A Brand Problem,” we examined a troubling trend: ​​Nearly as many U.S. adults have little or no confidence in our colleges and universities as have high confidence. The reasons are many—political polarization, skepticism about ROI, ballooning costs, and questions about relevance. For many outside the academy, the higher ed “brand” has become synonymous with elitism, inefficiency, and inaccessibility.

Yet a new survey from the Art & Science Group’s September 2025 studentPOLL complicates that narrative. Despite the steady drumbeat of public doubt, 81% of high school seniors still believe that earning a bachelor’s degree is worth it, and 94% of those planning to attend college this fall say it’s “definitely” or “likely” worth it.

Even among those who never seriously considered attending, a majority see a degree as a meaningful investment in their future.

So what gives?

How can higher education simultaneously be losing public trust and retaining strong belief among its most critical audience—students?

The Paradox: A Tarnished Brand That Still Holds Value

The tension between public distrust and student confidence may seem contradictory, but it actually reflects a deeper branding problem.

For adults, higher education is often perceived as a system that’s bureaucratic, expensive, and out of touch. For students, college is personal. It’s the gateway to opportunity, mobility, and identity. It’s also a symbolic border from dependent young adults to independent professional adults. The same brand that suffers in the national discourse can still resonate on an individual level.

The September 2025 studentPOLL captures this nuance. While students are deeply aware of cost, affordability ranks as a tertiary driver of college choice, behind the perceived quality and substance of the experience itself. As the study points out, students aren’t bargain shopping—they’re value shopping. They don’t just want the lowest price, they want the best return on their investment in terms of academics, outcomes, and the overall experience.

Meanwhile, surveys like Gallup’s Confidence in Institutions show that adult trust continues to wane: in 2015, 57% of respondents expressed a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in higher education compared to 36% in 2024 and 42% in 2025.

What Students See That the Public Doesn’t

So why do students still believe? The data offer some clues:

• They see tangible benefits. Students consistently cite job stability, career mobility, and personal growth as evidence that college pays off.
• Those advanced in the enrollment funnel see the experience’s potential up close. Prospective students interact directly with admissions counselors, faculty, advisors, and alumni—people who embody the institution’s impact in real and personal terms.
• They interpret cost through value. Students increasingly view affordability as part of a broader “good value for the cost” equation, rather than as an isolated factor.

In other words, while national discourse frames higher education as an inefficient system, students evaluate it as an individual journey—one that still promises social and economic return.

Bridging the Divide: What This Means for Higher Ed Marketing

The disconnect between student confidence and public skepticism represents both a challenge and an opportunity for colleges and universities. Crediting and adding to the September 2025 studentPOLL results, here’s how institutions can square the circle:

1. Lead with Experience and Outcomes

Students choose institutions based on the substance of the experience—academics, outcomes, community, and belonging. Marketing should move beyond abstract promises (“a world-class education”) to concrete demonstrations of impact: real student stories, career pathways, and the measurable outcomes that prove the degree delivers.

2. Communicate Value, Not Cost

Affordability is not synonymous with cheapness. Institutions should emphasize value for investment: transparent financial aid, debt literacy, and clear articulation of the lifelong returns—intellectual, professional, and civic—of a degree.

3. Rebuild Trust Through Transparency

For the public, distrust often stems from opacity. Clearer communication about how institutions use resources, measure success, and serve their communities can humanize the system. Trust is built not by perfection, but by openness.

4. Differentiate Through Authentic Mission

Institutions can no longer rely on prestige or legacy to carry the brand. The colleges that thrive will be those that can define—and live—a mission aligned with today’s cultural and economic realities: accessibility, innovation, and social responsibility.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Different

After all, “different” is the root of “differentiation.” In our experience, all colleges and universities say they want to be different, but very few have the fortitude to be different. Enrollment pressures too often force institutions to try and be all things to all students. When the majority do that, it’s the ones that don’t that stand out.

And by different, we mean, be yourself.

The Takeaway: The Brand Isn’t Broken—It’s Bifurcated

The higher education “brand” doesn’t suffer from lack of value, it suffers from lack of coherence. The system is seen as flawed, even as the product remains trusted.

This paradox gives colleges and universities a clear path forward: Show, don’t tell.

• Show that the experience justifies the investment.
• Show that outcomes are real, equitable, and lasting.
• Show that higher education is not a monolith, but a collection of communities that change lives—one student at a time.

Higher education’s brand isn’t dead, it needs to be retold: not as a defense of the past, but as a proof of its power to shape the future.

The Bottom Line

Students still believe.

That’s incredibly good news and a foundation worth building on. Our collective task is to align institutional messaging, transparency, and experience so that belief spreads—from prospective students to parents, alumni, and the public at large.

Because when the next generation believes in the promise of higher education, the brand isn’t lost, it’s waiting to be reinvigorated.