Thank you for your interest.

The College Confidence Index is an initiative sponsored by GradGuard and conducted by College Pulse that supports research into trends impacting the higher education community. Consumer confidence indices already exist across several industries from small businesses, to agriculture to travel, providing economists, industry leaders and the general public insight into current and future conditions.

Context is important. There are many external influences on consumer confidence. Constant media coverage on the rapid growth in the cost of college combined with the corresponding growth in student loan debt is one clear example. Another is from the National Student Clearinghouse reports on persistence rates that show that 1 in 4 students who started at a four-year non-profit institution in 2020 did not return for a second year to any institution in 2021.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic brought attention of consumers to the risks of investing in college. Specifically, it revealed the choices institutions made in regards to instruction delivery and even refund policies. Most of all, it highlighted the importance of how business practices of colleges and universities can positively or negatively impact the value that students and their families perceive in higher education.

While trust in major institutions and sectors in our society continues to decline, we believe that the commitment of colleges and universities to operate with transparency can strengthen consumer confidence in the value of higher education. As an industry, this commitment is seen through the actions of each campus to promote greater student success and college completion. It is also seen through the careful design of processes and policies that assure that students and their families are never surprised.

Thank you for joining our efforts to improve the confidence in the value of American higher education.

John

John Fees is co-founder of GradGuard whose misson is to help schools educate and protect their students from the risks of college.