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Leading Research Universities Report, July 22, 2024

A graduation cap on top of a stack of books on a park benchNew Gallup Survey Measures Confidence in U.S. Higher Education

Earlier this month, Gallup released its annual study gauging public confidence in higher education in the United States. The study, conducted in partnership with the Lumina Foundation, found that more than a third of Americans (36%) have a “great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in higher education, while nearly a third (32%) have “some confidence” in higher education and another third (32%) have “very little or no confidence” in higher education.

Half of Republicans (50%) said in the latest poll that they have “very little or no confidence” in higher education. Gallup has been conducting this study since 2015; back then, 57% of Americans expressed a “great deal or quite a lot of confidence” in higher education and only 10% expressed “very little or no confidence.”

Gallup also found that the Americans who have confidence in higher education “say they value education and the training and opportunities it provides,” while Americans who have no confidence in higher education believe that “colleges are pushing certain political agendas or not teaching the right kinds of skills.”

Regardless of Americans’ shrinking confidence in higher education, colleges continue to be a primary engine of social mobility in the United States. A new report published by the American Enterprise Institute earlier this year, for example, found that “four-year degrees continue to be associated with significant economic and noneconomic benefits for individuals and communities.”

According to a study by the College Board, the median earnings for full-time, year-round workers aged 25 years or older who held a bachelor’s degree in 2021 were $73,300 compared to $44,300 for workers with only high school diplomas. The median earnings for workers went up further if they obtained advanced degrees. The report also found that “the unemployment rate for individuals age 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree has consistently been about half of the unemployment rate for high school graduates.” 

Despite what the polls show and despite needed areas of improvement, Americans have a lot to be confident about in higher education. America’s leading research universities in particular conduct world-changing research and drive innovation that improves the lives of everyone. As Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber wrote last year, college is an “investment opportunity of a lifetime.” 


Digital image of servers with lots of cables

NSF Investing Millions to Build New Advanced Computing Facility at UT Austin

The National Science Foundation is investing $457 million to build a Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF) at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin. According to the NSF, the facility “is expected to revolutionize computational research across multiple subjects in science and engineering” and will “deploy the largest academic supercomputer dedicated to open-scientific research in the NSF portfolio” when it becomes operational in 2026.

"UT and TACC have long been recognized as the home of one of the nation's leading academic supercomputing centers, which enables and accelerates discovery that changes the world. The creation of this new facility with NSF means continued excellence and reliability for top researchers from across the country,” said UT Austin President Jay Hartzell. According to NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, the “facility will provide the computational resources necessary to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time, enabling researchers to push the boundaries of what is possible.”

Per the NSF, the project “also includes a wide range of education and public outreach plans to grow the future science and engineering workforce and ensure that the nation benefits from access to the facility.”


A digital representation of a key lock

AAU Staff Participates in NASEM’s Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable

Efforts to secure the U.S. scientific enterprise against theft by foreign entities are complimentary to, and do not contradict, efforts to promote scientific openness, international collaboration, and integrity in research, said AAU Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy Toby Smith at the capstone workshop of the National Academies’ National Science, Technology, and Security Roundtable last week.

The roundtable was convened in 2020 “to provide a neutral venue where individuals from the national intelligence and law enforcement communities can meet with representatives from industry and the academic research community to discuss current threats, benefits, and potential risks” associated with collaborative international research.

At the workshop, Smith outlined steps that Congress, executive branch agencies, and universities have already taken to advance research security. He specifically outlined federal actions taken in response to National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 and requirements included in previous National Defense Authorization Acts (dating back to 2019) and the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. A full list of research security-related actions taken by universities, Congress, and executive branch agencies can be found on the AAU website.

As the federal government looks to secure research further, Smith cautioned against blanket restrictions on the ability of U.S. researchers to participate in international scientific partnerships or putting scientific research results behind closed doors. Scientific progress requires science to be open and easily tested, reproduced, and replicated, he argued. Smith also called for more investments in fundamental scientific research; the development of a national talent recruitment and retention strategy; and increased coordination between the federal government, particularly intelligence agencies, and universities to enhance research security.


News of Interest
 

Inside Higher Ed: Academics Fight for Access to Supercomputers – The National Science Foundation recently launched the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot to provide researchers with access to advanced supercomputers so they can harness the power of AI to solve pressing societal problems. “We believe the two-year NAIRR pilot has great potential,” said AAU Deputy Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy Julia Jester. “But, to meet the project’s goal of widely improving access to the AI infrastructure needed to advance research and train the next generation of researchers, NSF and other agencies will need significantly more resources,” she added.

Austin American-Statesman: UT’s Texas Institute for Electronics Secures $840M to Develop Semiconductor Microsystems – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced last week that it has selected the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Institute for Electronics “as the recipient of $840 million to build a Department of Defense microelectronics manufacturing center.” The center will “push semiconductor technology forward” and help DOD “create higher-performance, lower-power, lightweight and compact defense systems.”

Politico: Sasse Resigning as UF President as Family Grapples with Health Issue – University of Florida President Ben Sasse announced that he is stepping down on July 31 after two years in office; his wife, Melissa, was recently diagnosed with epilepsy. “Gator Nation needs a president who can keep charging hard, Melissa deserves a husband who can pull his weight, and my kids need a dad who can be home many more nights,” said Sasse in a statement.

Inside Higher Ed: How a Second Trump Term Could Turn Up the Heat on Higher Ed – Higher education could face greater scrutiny and pressure if President Trump were to return to office. His agenda, among other things, includes closing the Department of Education, undoing regulatory changes made under the Biden administration, and overhauling college accreditation. “There’s a good chance that higher ed could be front and center because it has made itself a target of populist frustration,” said an expert from the American Enterprise Institute.

The Washington Post: Appeals Court Blocks Biden’s Student Loan Repayment Plan – Last week, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the Biden administration from implementing its income-driven student loan repayment program known as Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE). In response, the Education Department said that it will place all borrowers enrolled in the plan “in an interest-free forbearance” while the administration appeals the decision.


Featured Research
 

Image of tampons


UC Berkeley Study Finds Arsenic, Lead, Other Toxic Metals in Tampons

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; and Michigan State University evaluated levels of 16 metals in tampons from 14 different brands and found that all contained “toxic metals like lead, arsenic, and cadmium,” which can be harmful to human health. “Our study clearly shows that metals are … present in menstrual products, and that women might be at higher risk for exposure using these products,” said one study co-author.

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Less Than 2 Percent of State Legislators Are from the Working Class

New data compiled by researchers at Duke University and Loyola University Chicago show that, in 2023, “only about 1% of Republicans and 2% of Democrats in state legislatures [came] from working-class occupations.” Nearly 50% of U.S. workers in contrast hold working-class jobs, “suggesting a stark disparity between the labor force and the elected leaders who represent them.” The researchers also found that, “in 10 states, there was not a single lawmaker who currently or last worked in … a working-class job.”


Stat of the Week

 

A stat from AAU

Approximately 94% of the budget of the National Institutes of Health goes directly to research awards, programs, centers, training programs, and research and development contracts. And, as AAU President Barbara R. Snyder wrote in a recent blog post, “the research that NIH has conducted and supported – much of it in partnership with America’s leading research universities – has been absolutely crucial to Americans’ health and biomedical innovation.” Congress should continue making robust investments in the NIH and in the nation’s health, she argued: “Particularly as America’s population ages and new global pandemics threaten, it would be unwise at best to cut some of the most valuable life-saving research that the federal government supports.”