The Higher Ed Index by SimpsonScarborough tracks how Americans perceive, value, and engage with higher education across six audiences, giving colleges and universities a national baseline for smarter decisions.
When applications decline, is your institution losing appeal, or is demand softening everywhere? When alumni stop giving, is their relationship with you changing, or is their confidence in higher ed changing?
Without a market baseline, institutions are left interpreting their own numbers in isolation.
#1 Budget is the top barrier to measuring brand. No baseline data is second.
1 in 2 CMOs rate their own marketing performance reporting only fair or poor.
Source: SimpsonScarborough Higher Ed CMO Study 2025–26.
The Higher Ed Index
The Higher Ed Index is a national study of 12,247 Americans across six audiences, refreshed several times a year to track how perceptions of higher education evolve.
With a sample this large, we can look beyond national averages to examine meaningful differences across audiences, ages, regions, and more. So institutions can see not just what Americans think about higher education, but how those perceptions differ and change.
| Audience | The questions it helps answer | Who needs to know |
|---|---|---|
| General population | What earns public trust in higher ed? | |
| Prospective undergraduates | What makes a degree worth pursuing? | |
| Parents | What makes the cost feel justified? | |
| Current students | Where does the experience fall short of expectations? | |
| Alumni and donors | What sustains affinity and inspires giving? | |
| Adult learners | Which pathways and outcomes make college worth returning to? |
Online survey of U.S. residents aged 16+, fielded July 23 to August 26, 2026 via InnovateMR's opt-in panel. Weighted to 2024 U.S. Census ACS benchmarks by region and age. Precision is a modeled estimate adjusted for the design effect of weighting.
Whether you need to understand the broader market or measure your institution against it, the Higher Ed Index gives you the context to make more informed decisions.
Tells you what the market thinks.
Understand what Americans think about higher ed, how perceptions differ across your audiences and markets, and what changes over time.
Tells you what the market thinks about you.
Understand how your institution is performing against the broader market, so you can distinguish challenges specific to your brand from shifts affecting higher education as a whole.
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Understand what’s changing, where your institution stands, and which decisions the evidence should inform.
See the dashboard, explore the markets and audiences that matter to you, and learn how the Higher Ed Index can support your institution.
