Champaign, IGPA, the U. of I. College of Media, and the Forum on the Future of Public Education at the Urbana-Champaign campus.
The survey of 1,143 Illinoisans over the age of 18 was conducted May 5-22 by Knowledge Networks, which used a randomly recruited online research panel that is demographically representative of the state's population. The survey has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 5.25 percentage points.
"Colleges and universities are key to building a secure future for young people, Illinois communities and the economy," said U. of I. President Emeritus Stanley O. Ikenberry, one of the organizers of Tuesday's summit. "Our survey results are likely to trigger a spirited conversation about where higher education stands in this state and what needs to be done to move forward."
The survey indicated that Illinoisans believe lowering tuition and fees and offering more financial aid to needy students should be priorities if the state invests more in colleges and universities. But the survey also indicated that improving buildings, expanding programs, funding more research that benefits local economic development, and building capacity to enroll more students all ranked lower in the survey's priority listing.
"There appears to be a real disconnect between the public's priorities for investment in higher education and the priorities sometimes proposed." Rich said.
The full survey will be available at www.igpa.uillinois.edu or http://theforum.ed.uiuc.edu/.
Editor's note: To contact Stanley Ikenberry, call 217-265-5409.
To contact Robert Rich, call 217-244-8550 or 217-493-9345.