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Institutions of Higher Education have important roles
in teaching and encouraging civic engagement, not only
among their own students but in the broader community.
CIRCLE Releases Four Fact Sheets on Civic Engagement and Higher Education
Previous research finds that college attendance is positively associated with civic engagement. For example, since 1972, voter turnout in presidential elections for young people who have some college experience has been 15 to 20 percentage points greater than voter turnout rates among young people with no college experience. This pattern may reflect a combination of at least three explanatory factors: the learning that occurs in college; the fact that more civically engaged students are more likely to succeed in school and then attend college; and the income, networks, and status that come from higher education.
CIRCLE has recently published several detailed fact sheets that update, refine, and in some respects complicate, our knowledge of the links between college education and civic engagement. The release of these new CIRCLE fact sheets is in conjunction with Campus Compact's 20th Anniversary celebration. Below are links to the four new fact sheets.
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College Students and Politics: A Literature Review
Nicholas V. Longo (Kettering Foundation) and Ross P. Meyer (New York University) review the literature on college students' political attitudes and behaviors
Download
the literature review
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Higher Education: Civic Mission & Civic Effects
A consensus report by 22 scholars, jointly organized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and CIRCLE, explores the civic effects of attending college and the benefits of various approaches to civic learning in higher education. The authors represent the fields of political science, psychology, economics, philosophy, sociology, research in higher education, and women's studies. The report:
- emphasizes that colleges and universities have a civic purpose
- explores profound changes in the civic mission of universities since 1900
- examines that somewhat ambiguous evidence about the effects of college attendance on students' civic knowledge and behavior
- recommends certain approaches to teaching civic education at the college level
- discusses some obstacles to civic education, and
- outlines an agenda for further research
Download the consensus report
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College Attendance and Civic Engagement
A new CIRCLE fact sheet examines the link between college
experience and civic engagement, including breakdowns
by gender. The fact sheet is based mainly on data collected
in the National Civic Engagement Survey (Spring 2002).
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The Role Universities Play in Developing Citizens
A new literature review by William Talcott examines the
role that universities have played throughout history
in developing citizens. The review covers a sample of
formative texts on the broad topic of citizenship and
the historical development of modern universities in the
United States. The focus is primarily on major research
universities, with the rationale that these have had disproportionate
cultural and institutional influence over the development
of higher education as a whole.
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Working College Students Have Highest Rates of Political
Engagement
Young people who both study and work are busier than
students who do not work. However, student-workers report
higher levels of interest in politics, newspaper reading,
talking politics with friends, engaging or practicing
civic skills, having been asked to vote, making their
views known, and political participation. Many student-workers
appear to be pursuing bachelor's degrees, but they are
also more engaged, more open to politics, and less likely
to feel dissuaded by potential barriers to participation
than their peers who are attending college full-time.
Whether they work or not, students between the ages of
19 and 23 tend to be more politically engaged than their
peers who are out of school and college altogether.
State Student Associations
A CIRCLE-funded report, "An
Investigation of State Student Associations and Their
Ability to Engage Students" by the Student
Empowerment Training Project examines the role of
State Students Associations (SSAs) in youth civic engagement.
In addition, the report offers recommendations from highly
successful SSAs.
A companion report, "Guide
to State Student Associations" catalogues all
SSAs currently in orperation and provides contact information
for key staff.
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For more information on higher education and civic
engagement see:
Campus
Compact
In 2005, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) included five questions on civic engagement, asked of 113,000 students at 449 institutions of higher education. See the 2005 Annual Report for details.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
program on Higher Education and the Development of Moral
and Civic Responsibility (Website)
Center
for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey School,
University of Minnesota
The
Democracy Collaborative
See also: Virginia Chanley, Irasema Coronado, and Ashley
Woodiwiss, "Universities
as Sites of Citizenship and Civic Responsibility: A Report
of the Pilot Phase of the Research" (on Wheaton
College, Florida International University, and the University
of Texas El Paso), in The Political Psychologist,
vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 2002), pp. 2-18. |
