\n<\/p>\n
Seven in 10 college students say most or nearly all students on their college campus feel welcomed, valued and supported, according to a July 2025 survey by Inside Higher Ed<\/em> and Generation Lab. <\/p>\n The data, collected from over 260 two- and four-year colleges across the country, paints a relatively rosy picture of students\u2019 sentiments on campus this fall against the backdrop of free speech restrictions, tense protests and cutbacks to programs that serve students from racial minorities. <\/p>\n While respondents indicated the average student is welcome at their institution, they were less confident about whether they themselves fit in academically or socially. <\/p>\n Fewer than one-third of respondents said they have an \u201cexcellent\u201d or \u201cabove average\u201d sense of social belonging on campus; 42\u00a0percent reported \u201caverage\u201d feelings of belonging. Additionally, 38\u00a0percent of students said they had an \u201cexcellent\u201d or \u201cabove average\u201d sense of academic fit at their institution, while just under half said they had an average sense of academic fit. <\/p>\n Survey data also pointed to positive sentiments about personal and academic inquiry. When asked how encouraged and supported they felt to explore different perspectives and challenge their beliefs, a majority of students indicated they feel \u201csomewhat\u201d (45\u00a0percent) or \u201cvery\u201d supported (35\u00a0percent) on campus. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Campus climate, or the perception of how much respect and inclusion students feel on campus, is tied to learning; research shows that students who face discrimination are less likely to succeed academically. Research has also found that students of color are less likely than their white peers to report feeling at home at college. <\/p>\n Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s Student Voice survey found minor variance among racial groups in reporting a generally positive campus climate. White students (75\u00a0percent) and Asian American or Pacific Islander students (73\u00a0percent) were most likely to indicate \u201cmost\u201d or \u201cnearly all\u201d students are welcome on campus, compared to Hispanic (71\u00a0percent) or Black (68\u00a0percent) respondents. Seventy\u00a0percent of \u201cother\u201d students, which Generation Lab classifies as students of two or more races or who come from outside the U.S., had positive reviews on campus climate. <\/p>\n Adult and two-year students were more likely to say nearly all students are welcome on campus (24\u00a0percent) than the average respondent (20\u00a0percent), which could reflect the diverse student bodies at two-year institutions and the preferences of adult learners to enroll in two-year or online institutions. <\/p>\n By comparison, students who had considered leaving college were less likely to say \u201cmost\u201d or \u201cnearly all\u201d students are welcomed (64\u00a0percent) compared to all respondents (73\u00a0percent) or students who had never considered dropping out (77\u00a0percent). <\/p>\n Three\u00a0percent of survey respondents wrote in other responses, indicating they completed their classes online and therefore could not speak to the campus climate. <\/p>\n The survey also asked students to rank their own sense of social belonging and academic fit on a scale of poor to excellent. <\/p>\n Across racial demographics, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students were most likely to rate their social belonging as high (33\u00a0percent), followed by white and international students (30\u00a0percent each), Black students (25\u00a0percent), and Latinos (22\u00a0percent). <\/p>\n On academic fit, white students had the highest ratings; 43\u00a0percent of respondents said their fit was \u201cexcellent\u201d or \u201cabove average,\u201d followed by AAPI (42\u00a0percent), Black students (33\u00a0percent) and Latino students (30\u00a0percent).<\/p>\n Students who had considered leaving college were much more likely than their peers to report they had a \u201cpoor\u201d sense of belonging (15\u00a0percent versus 6\u00a0percent).<\/p>\n First-generation students were more likely to rate their sense of academic fit and social belonging as \u201cbelow average\u201d or \u201cpoor\u201d (17\u00a0percent and 37\u00a0percent, respectively) compared to their continuing-generation peers (13\u00a0percent and 28\u00a0percent). <\/p>\n Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s survey also asked students whether federal actions to limit diversity, equity and inclusion have impacted their experiences. The most popular response was \u201cno real impact on my experience\u201d (37\u00a0percent), and a handful of students wrote in that they anticipated greater impact after returning to campus this fall. This view held across racial groups, with the greatest share of respondents saying it hasn\u2019t impacted their experience. <\/p>\n About 20\u00a0percent of students said the changes to DEI on campus have \u201csomewhat negatively impacted my experience\u201d and 16\u00a0percent indicated \u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t feel impacted, but my peers have been negatively impacted.\u201d <\/p>\n Nonbinary students were most likely to say it\u2019s severely negatively impacting their experience (39\u00a0percent). <\/p>\n Ten\u00a0percent of respondents said they are somewhat or significantly impacted in a positive manner by the changes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seven in 10 college students say most or nearly all students on their college campus feel welcomed, valued and supported, according to a July 2025 survey by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab. The data, collected from over 260 two- and four-year colleges across the country, paints a relatively rosy picture of students\u2019 sentiments on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5356,10499,14999,1376,678],"class_list":{"0":"post-30912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-belonging","9":"tag-campuses","10":"tag-feelings","11":"tag-share","12":"tag-students"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Warm Welcome <\/h2>\n
Academic Success and Belonging <\/h2>\n
DEI Cutbacks <\/h2>\n