Survey: Missourians by wide margin think the state is better off with Mizzou here

Sixty-eight percent of Missourians think the state is better off with the University of Missouri, according a survey with results presented Monday on campus.

"This is the single best number I have seen in the 31, 32 times I asked this," said Ken Goldstein, senior vice president for survey research and institutional policy at the American Association of Universities, of which MU is a member.

The number also is better than that of all the other AAU institutions in their states, he said.

Goldstein presented the survey results in Stotler Lounge in Memorial Union to an audience of MU administrators and faculty members and a few system curators.

To the same question, 24% said they didn't know if the state was better off with MU and 8% said it was worse off. There were 999 respondents sampled for the survey.

MU's reputation is excellent with 28 percent of Missourians, according to the survey.

"I would like to see that 28 a bit higher, but there's opportunity to do that," Goldstein said.

There were 80% who said MU's reputation is excellent or good.

The most important thing MU does is to educate students to get good jobs, according to another finding.

That result is good for parents whose children are at MU or will attend, he said.

"You know what you want your kids to get when they get out?" Goldstein asked. "A job."

It's a bipartisan response, he said.

"Both Dems and Republicans want their kids to get jobs," he said.

On MU's impact on the state, 29% of respondents said it is very positive and 45% somewhat positive. On the impact for their own communities, 20% said MU had a very positive impact while 37% said the impact was somewhat positive.

For both the state and local impact, 1% responded it was very negative.

Nearly half of respondents — 48% — said an MU degree was both valuable and worth the cost. Just 3% said it was not valuable.

Goldstein focused on another number.

"I do worry a little about the 31% who said MU is valuable but not worth the cost," Goldstein said.

The value and affordability of degrees is an important message for the university to send, Goldstein said.

"We really have to not be shy about the value of our degrees," he said.

Mizzou's reputation is good in both rural and urban areas of the state, he said.

"I think the work you do has really mattered," Goldstein said. "The work that the University of Missouri Extension does is resonating."

There have been national polls questioning the value of higher education in general, but Goldstein said his poll's results for MU show the opposite.

"Most of you came here expecting to hear bad news," Goldstein said. "The news is actually pretty good."

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: What Missouri residents said about MU's value and affordability