Survey: Most College Students Support Vaccine Mandate for a Return to Campus, but a Strong Partisan Divide Exists

College students eager for a return to normalcy overwhelmingly support colleges making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory, according to a new Student Voice survey, conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, and presented by Kaplan*. Of the more than 2,000 college students across the United States polled, 69 percent support colleges requiring students to be vaccinated if they want to attend in-person classes, while only 24 percent oppose it; the remaining 7 percent don’t know. The survey reveal comes on the heels of an increasing number of colleges, including large university systems such as the University of California, California State, and State University of New York and top-ranked Harvard, Yale, and Brown, announcing that vaccines will be mandated for all students who want to return to campus this fall.

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Students eager for a return to normalcy overwhelmingly support colleges and universities making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory, according to a new Student Voice survey, conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, and presented by Kaplan. (Graphic: Business Wire)

The survey also exposes a similar deep partisan divide regarding vaccinations that exists across the country. Of the students surveyed who self-identify as Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters, 90 percent support a vaccine mandate at colleges, but among those who self-identify as Republican or Republican-leaning voters, the percentage is 37 percent. Among self-identified independents, support stands at 63 percent.

But should schools that mandate a vaccine fear an exodus from students who don’t plan to get vaccinated? The survey finds that 23 percent of non-vaxxers would definitely transfer if faced with a mandate, while another 17 percent say probably. But this subset of holdouts represents only 15 percent of surveyed students; 85 percent say they are already vaccinated or will get vaccinated, signaling relatively minor disruption.

“Colleges administrators and college students don’t agree on every issue, but on vaccine mandates, there’s strong consensus. It’s very likely that there will continue to be more movement in the direction of mandates, at least for the fall semester, but maybe beyond, as science and data dictate,” said Isaac Botier, executive director of college admissions programs, Kaplan. “We think it’s unlikely that many students who choose not to be vaccinated will ultimately transfer, given that most other colleges they’ll be looking at will also have a mandate in place. The choice for many might be to continue with online learning, if that’s an option, as we suspect it will be. We plan to continue to track this issue over the next year.”

To schedule an interview about the survey results, contact Russell Schaffer at 917.822.8190 or russell.schaffer@kaplan.com.

*Based on the results of an e-survey conducted in April 2021 of 2,002 four-year college and community college students from across the United States.

About Kaplan

Kaplan is a global educational services company that provides individuals, universities, and businesses with a diverse array of services, including higher and professional education, test preparation, language training, corporate and leadership training, and student recruitment, online enablement and other university support services. With operations in nearly 30 countries, Kaplan serves nearly 1.1 million students each year and has partnerships with 2,000-plus universities, colleges, and schools/school districts, and more than 4,000 businesses globally. Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC). For more information, please visit www.kaptest.com.

Note to editors: Kaplan is a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC)

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Students overwhelmingly support colleges making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory, according to a new Inside Higher Ed/College Pulse/Kaplan survey. This comes as more and more colleges and universities announces their fall plans.