Home VCU poll: Majority say Virginia higher education institutions prepare students well for workforce
Local

VCU poll: Majority say Virginia higher education institutions prepare students well for workforce

Contributors

vcuIn the latest Commonwealth Education Poll, a majority of respondents say Virginia colleges and universities are doing a good job providing students with skills to succeed in the workplace and beyond. Five areas were identified as particular strengths:

  • Producing graduates in scientific fields: 75 percent.
  • Preparing students for the workforce needs for the future: 64percent.
  • Providing the skills that will be useful in obtaining a job: 67percent.
  • Developing students’ writing and communication skills: 63 percent.
  • Preparing students to be engaged citizens: 61 percent.

“This poll shows the trust citizens have in our colleges and universities to prepare students for the careers of the future,” said Virginia Secretary of Education Dietra Trent. “Working over the last three years to bring education into the 21st century, Governor McAuliffe has helped to lay the groundwork for a strong talent pipeline from the classroom to the workforce.”

Poll responses also indicate that the public sees Virginia colleges as a key catalyst for workforce readiness. Almost three in four respondents said community college graduates (74 percent) and four-year college graduates (73 percent) are ready to join the workforce. Only 36 percent believe high school graduates are ready for the world of work.

“Colleges and universities in Virginia as a whole are perceived positively by a large majority of the public in terms of outcomes that support the state’s economy and civic life,” said Robyn McDougle, Ph.D., interim executive director of the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute and associate professor at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“These responses also show that the public’s estimate of workforce readiness is equally positive for both community college and four-year college graduates but not for high school graduates,” she said. “The system of higher education clearly provides a significant added value to its students.”

While high school graduates are not seen as ready for the workforce, 60 percent of respondents said a high school graduate is ready for college. Eighty-eight percent believe community college graduates are ready for a four-year college.

The value of a higher education degree also drives policy discussions about how to increase access to college for more students. One often cited barrier is cost and two poll questions showed:

  • A narrow majority of the public in Virginia (54 percent) is willing to pay higher taxes in order to drive down costs through need-based financial aid.
  • A strong majority of the public (74 percent) wants college administrators to spend privately raised, non-taxpayer sources of available funding on reducing tuition and fees. This compared to only 15 percent who preferred a focus on expanding teaching faculty and resources to provide access to more students and 7 percent who preferred a focus on building new facilities to attract the highest quality students.

“College administrators face constant tradeoffs in deciding whether to focus finite resources on facilities that attract the highest quality students, expanding classrooms and faculty so more students can attend, or reducing the cost of attendance,” McDougle said. “Those are tough choices, but the responses here show the public is most clearly concerned about reducing the cost of attendance.”

Other findings in the poll include:

  • Seventy-four percent of respondents said they believe college and university campuses in Virginia are safe, up from 67 percent in last year’s poll. Only 3 percent felt campuses were “not safe at all.”
  • Fifty-four percent of Virginians report knowing quite a lot or some about the process of transferring from a two-year to four-year school, an increase of 9 percentage points from a 2013 survey. Of those respondents, 66 percent reported that the transfer process was very or somewhat easy.
  • Forty-nine percent of Virginians report knowing quite a lot or some about dual enrollment opportunities, whereby high school students take college courses for credits toward both a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree.

These findings are part of a new statewide survey conducted by VCU. The Commonwealth Education Poll was conducted by landline and cell telephone Nov. 8-17, with a random sample of 806 adults in Virginia. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. This poll is conducted annually by VCU’s Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute, which is part of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Portions of the poll related to K-12 funding and policy were released Jan. 24.

For a PDF of the 42-page report including complete question wording and detailed tables of results see cepi.vcu.edu/publications/polls.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.