WASHINGTON 鈥 A majority of U.S. adults disapprove of President Donald Trump鈥檚 handling of issues related to colleges and universities, according to a new poll, as his administration ramps up threats to聽聽unless schools comply with his political agenda.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters聽Thursday in front of the West Wing of the White House in Washington.
More than half of Americans, 56%, disapprove of the Republican president's approach on higher education, the survey from聽聽finds, while about 4 in 10 approve, in line with his overall job approval.
Since taking office in January, Trump tried to force change at universities he says became hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism. The spotlight most recently has been on聽, where Trump's administration has frozen more than $2.2 billion in federal grants, threatened to strip the school鈥檚聽, and demanded broad policy changes.
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The Trump administration also has cut off money to other elite colleges, including聽,听听补苍诲听, over issues including the handling of pro-Palestinian activism and transgender athletes' participation in women's sports. Harvard has framed the government鈥檚 demands as a threat to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.
The poll shows a disconnect between the Trump administration鈥檚 targeting of universities and an American public that sees them as key to聽, new ideas and innovative technology. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say colleges and universities make more of a positive contribution to medical and scientific research than a negative one, and a similar share favors maintaining聽聽for scientific research.
鈥淟et鈥檚 talk about Harvard for a minute,鈥 said Freddy Ortega, 66, a Democrat and a retired military veteran in Columbus, Georgia. 鈥淭he way he took away all that money in funding, impacting things that Harvard has been working on for the betterment of the world.鈥
鈥淥ne man should not have that much power," Ortega continued. "This is something for Congress to deal with.鈥
Ortega, who's Hispanic, also said he's concerned about Trump鈥檚 attempts to dismantle聽聽programs across U.S. society. 鈥淚 came up in the military. I know the good that those programs do," he said. "It changes the direction that people鈥檚 lives are going to take.鈥
Students, faculty and members of the Harvard University community rally April 17 in Cambridge, Mass.
Republicans are divided on cuts to colleges' federal funding
Trump鈥檚 stance on higher education resonates more strongly with Republicans, most of whom see college campuses as places where聽聽and liberal ideas run unchecked. About 8 in 10 Republicans approve of how Trump is handling issues related to colleges and universities 鈥 which, notably, is higher than the share of Republicans, 70%, who approve of his handling of the economy 鈥 and about 6 in 10 say they're 鈥渆xtremely鈥 or 鈥渧ery鈥 concerned about liberal bias on campus.
Republicans are more divided, however, on withholding federal funding from schools unless they bow to Trump鈥檚 demands. About half are in favor, while about one-quarter are opposed and a similar share are neutral.
鈥淚鈥檓 all for it,鈥 said Republican voter Hengameh Abraham, 38, a mother of two in Roseville, California. She supports cutting federal funds and opposes DEI programs, saying she emigrated to America from Iran as a teenager and worked hard to get ahead in school without the help of聽听辫谤辞驳谤补尘蝉.
鈥淵our racial identity, nationality and background should not be a factor in getting accepted to college or getting a job,鈥 said Abraham. She supports聽聽on campus antisemitism. When聽聽swept U.S. colleges last year, some of the demonstrators' messaging was anti-U.S., she said.
鈥淚 do not think if you have any kind of anti-American agenda or slogan that you should be allowed on a university campus in the United States," she said.
The AP-NORC poll of 1,175 adults was conducted May 1-5, using a sample drawn from NORC鈥檚 probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
In Harvard's case, Trump threatened to remove its tax-exempt status, and his administration implemented聽. Those measures are divisive among the general public: Nearly half opposes withholding federal funding as a punitive action, while about one-quarter favors it. About one-quarter is neutral.
Charles Jolivette, 43, a college career counselor who lives in New Orleans, sees Trump鈥檚 education policies as an attack on free speech and people of color.
鈥淣ot only is the president going after anyone he feels is an opponent and anyone who is not compliant, but he鈥檚 attacking some of the most important elements of our society,鈥 said Jolivette, a Democrat. 鈥淚t鈥檚 rampant bullying from the president of the United States, who is supposed to be crossing the aisle.鈥
People walk between buildings Dec. 17 on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
The cost of tuition far outweighs other concerns
A top concern of most Americans is the cost of a college degree. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults are 鈥渆xtremely鈥 or 鈥渧ery鈥 concerned about the cost of tuition. That concern is shared by majorities of Democrats and Republicans and far outweighs concerns about antisemitism and liberal bias on campuses among the general public.
鈥淐ollege costs a lot more than it needs to. To get an education, you should not have to break your pocketbook,鈥 said Eunice Cortez, 68, a Republican near Houston.
Cortez, who's originally from Mexico, did not go to college, but she made sure her U.S.-born children did and is proud that her grandchildren are getting college degrees. She supports Trump but is concerned that some of his policies, including funding cuts, will make it harder for people who need tuition aid to get an education. She sees it as the government 鈥済etting in the way鈥 of an educated society.
The poll shows a divide between聽聽and those without college degrees, highlighting a possible cultural rift that Trump has seized on in the past.
Most Americans with a college degree, 62%, are opposed to withholding funding from universities that don't comply with the president's requirements, while those without a college degree are split, with about 3 in 10 in favor, a similar share opposed, and about 4 in 10 saying they don't have an opinion.
Kara Hansen, 40, a registered independent in Seminole, Oklahoma, is a few credits shy of a college degree. She supports the idea of聽聽to shake things up. But she said she's concerned by what she calls Trump鈥檚 鈥渁uthoritarian tendencies鈥 and a growing fear on college campuses to speak up and voice opinions.
鈥淚t feels like everybody has a muzzle on," Hansen said. "They can鈥檛 fully express themselves because they鈥檙e afraid of getting in trouble, and afraid of Trump.鈥
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say students or professors can freely speak their minds 鈥渁 lot鈥 on college and university campuses. About 4 in 10 say they can do this to 鈥渟ome鈥 extent. Republicans feel their views are stifled: About 8 in 10 say liberals can speak their minds 鈥渁 lot鈥 or 鈥渟ome鈥 on campus, but fewer than half say the same about conservatives.
___
Gecker reported from San Francisco.
Is a college education an investment or a gamble? It depends on the type of student.
Is a college education an investment or a gamble? It depends on the type of student.
A college education can be a costly undertaking. College Board data shows that four-year college students in tuition, housing, and other expenses at private nonprofit institutions and $20,000 at public ones, taking into account grants and financial aid. Although those numbers are much lower than the $60,000 per year price tag that private nonprofit colleges typically post, it still amounts to a lot of money.
However, because of the daunting cost (not to mention potentially differing politics and beliefs), more and more people are second-guessing the value of postsecondary education. In a 2024 Gallup and Lumina Foundation poll, said they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot of" confidence in higher education鈥攁 dip from 2015, when 57% expressed this confidence.
Despite these hesitations, people continue to see college as a pathway to success. Among the Gallup respondents who expressed higher confidence levels, nearly a quarter said it was because postsecondary education fosters better opportunities.
Data supports this sentiment: College graduates tend to make much more money than their less-credentialed counterparts. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans aged 25 and over with bachelor's degrees had a median income of around in 2023, 66% more than their peers with just a high school diploma.
Looking at this wage gap alone can provide a misleading picture of a college education's impact on a person's earnings. As economist and author Bryan Caplan of George Mason University points out in his book "The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money," not everyone who goes to college graduates. He estimates that for students who enrolled in college in 2007, only 4 in 5 (82%) people who go to a public four-year college had a bachelor's degree six years after enrollment and that most fail to graduate on time. Estimates of the benefits of college also often ignore the opportunity cost: Every minute spent studying is a minute spent not working.
One way to reconcile these facts would be to evaluate college degrees as financial investments. analyzed data from the and via the , the , and other sources to estimate the return on investment for a college education.
College is still a good bet, but only for some
When companies or investors consider a project, they care about the internal rate of return, or IRR, a form of ROI. Investing in a project with a 5% internal rate of return is financially equivalent to putting your money in a savings account that pays 5% interest a year.
has built a statistical model that estimates how much people of different academic abilities and education levels can expect to earn and estimates the internal rates of return on pursuing a four-year degree. It considers the , such as wages, bonuses, tips, rental income, and more. Borrowing from Bryan Caplan's aforementioned book, this analysis breaks students into four levels of academic ability, ranging from "excellent students," who have grades and test scores at roughly the 82nd percentile on tests, to "poor students," who are at roughly the 24th percentile of academic performance.
This model makes several simplifying assumptions. It assumes everyone who goes to a four-year college does so between 18 and 21, and anyone who drops out does so after two years. It also assumes full-time college students do not work and that everyone files taxes as single persons with no dependents and takes the standard tax deductions. It ignores the impact of state and local taxes, as well as living expenses, since people who do not go to college need housing too. Students who can live at home during college save a lot of money.
Overall, this analysis finds that college is a good bet, at least for those with a good academic record. Excellent students can expect an ROI of about 14.1% at public four-year colleges, while poor students can expect only a 4.6% return. For comparison, the S&P 500 Index, which tracks the performance of shares in the biggest listed companies in America, has provided a total return of over the past three decades.
The biggest reason some students can expect much better returns than others is graduation rates. Drawing from Caplan's research, this model assumes excellent students have a 66.5% chance of graduating with a bachelor's degree, while poor students have only a 6.1% chance.
These numbers also do not account for inflation, which would lower the expected returns on investment by two to three percentage points.
Better to have studied than not at all
Considering not everyone who enters college gets a degree, would even an attempt at graduating make a difference? Yes, says a different analysis by Stacker using GSS data, which incorporates educational background and a measure of academic ability in the form of . Even when college students drop out, it is likely they will earn more than their peers who never went at all.
Part of what colleges do is filter for people who are already bright. By including a measure of academic ability, this analysis limits the credit given to colleges for the earnings of their future graduates. It also helps account for the fact that people with high academic ability tend to have better career options than those who don't, regardless of what diplomas they might hold.
GSS data shows that both the educational credentials a person has and their academic fitness鈥攁s measured by a short vocabulary quiz鈥攎atter when it comes to earnings. For example, a person who scored a 5 out of 10 on the Wordsum quiz can be expected to have a family income of around $65,000 a year if they graduated from high school but never went to college, $69,000 if they went to college but did not graduate, and $105,000 if they earned a bachelor's degree.
The fact that college graduates earn so much more than their peers who dropped out, even controlling for academic ability (as measured by Wordsum), could be partly because they are above average on some traits outside of those measured by the data. It also suggests employers value college degrees. To paraphrase Bryan Caplan, a high schooler who goes on to earn a bachelor's degree in underwater basket weaving will likely earn much more money than their equally intelligent peers who never went to college. Graduating is the hard part.
One of the biggest barriers to higher education (and, consequently, graduation) is the cost.
An survey found that roughly 3 in 5 U.S. adults do not have four-year college degrees mainly because they couldn't afford them. Another major reason was that they needed to work and support their families instead of finishing their education. One way some students have navigated this has been by applying to multiple colleges鈥攕ome are more generous with their financial aid packages than others. This analysis, however, assumes students on average are paying the same as their peers. Anyone who pays full price for a four-year degree at a private college will have a much harder time getting a positive financial return on their tuition.
One's field of study also matters. While this analysis doesn't break college graduates by their majors, a recent study with a similar methodology by Liang Zhang of New York University and two other scholars does. In general, Zhang's study found that engineering and computer science majors produce the best rates of return, exceeding 13%. Business, health, math, and science degrees followed with IRRs between 10% to 13%. Behind them are degrees in biology and social science, which typically return between 8% and 9%. Education and humanities produced the lowest IRRs, especially for men. However, their numbers are adjusted for inflation and do not factor in dropout rates.
Wages for high school graduates are on the rise
The economy is an ever-changing landscape and many things have shifted rapidly. Many recent developments have whittled away at the return on a college degree.
Pay for blue-collar jobs has been rising faster than pay for white-collar jobs. This increases the opportunity cost of college and lowers the ROI on degrees. For example, California in April 2024 requiring a $20 per hour minimum wage for fast-food workers. A person who eschews the job at McDonald's to go to college for four years would effectively be giving up $166,400 in pretax earnings, assuming they did not work while they studied.
Another major development is that interest rates have skyrocketed. Federal student loans for undergraduates now have a , up from a low point of 2.75% in 2020, according to Federal Student Aid. Anyone who takes loans to go to college should know they could end up paying a lot more interest than people who went to college just a few years prior.
Despite these trends, college still has one more argument in its favor: leverage. Not many people would lend thousands of dollars to an 18-year-old to buy stocks, regardless of what the math says. But the federal government will happily lend money to that exact same 18-year-old if they want to spend it on tuition. A low financial return is better than none at all.
Conventional financial theory suggests that if the expected ROI is lower than the cost of financing, companies should pass on the project. Recent economic trends have made the decision to go to college harder than ever. College may still be a good investment, but only for the well-prepared.
Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.
originally appeared on and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Famous student protests from around the world
Famous student protests from around the world
Last May's proliferating pro-Palestine student protests match a storied history of student activism in the United States and around the world.
Colleges across the U.S. are preparing for the students' momentum, interrupted by the end of the spring semester, to pick up in the coming weeks as students return to campus for the new academic year. Many student activists, both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel, have used the summer to strategize.
From pre-Civil Rights demonstrations in the early 20th century to anti-gun marches last year, young people have gone to great lengths over time to make their voices heard鈥攕ometimes risking their lives doing so.听 explored famous student protests in modern history dating back to the turn of the 20th century.
Student protesters have come from all races, classes, genders, and nationalities. Their ages have ranged from middle schoolers to graduate students, and protests have occurred across institutions.
The impact of student protest movements has echoed throughout history. The White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany, founded by medical students, inspired generations of nonviolent protestors, while the 1987 June Democratic Struggle in South Korea dissolved the military regime there and established modern-day Korean democracy.
In the United States, student activists have advocated for a wide range of issues, including women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, racial equality, peace, reproductive freedom, affordable education, debt-free tuition, police accountability, gun control, and more. Some of the biggest revolutions across the world have originated with students.
The responses from authorities have varied. In some cases, the young people have been allowed to protest freely, while others have been silenced and suppressed, sometimes violently. History is full of examples of police and military forces breaking up peaceful protests employing batons, tear gas, beatings, and even gunfire鈥攁s it is full of instances where protests turned into riots or prevented fellow students from attending class or other school activities.
Keep reading to learn more about famous student protests worldwide.
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1901: Wrze艣nia School Strike in Poland
When German school officials announced in March 1901 that religion classes at the Catholic People's School in Wrze艣nia, an annexed section of Poland, would be held in Germany, more than 100 students protested.
They rejected the German textbooks, suffering detention and beatings as a result. On May 20, 1901, officials dispersed a large crowd of students and parents in front of the school and jailed many of the adults. Over the next three years, trials unfolded while young people continued striking鈥攁t least two of whom were beaten to death.
1924-25: Fisk University protests
American students at the historically black Fisk University in the mid-1920s launched a massive protest聽against the school's white president, Fayette McKenzie, who'd taken extreme measures鈥攊ncluding shutting down the student newspaper and banning most extracurricular activities鈥攖o court donors.
When alumnus W.E.B. Du Bois, then a rising star with a daughter at the college, visited the campus in 1924, he called out the president in a speech from the chapel: "Men and women of Black America: Let no decent Negro send his child to Fisk until Fayette McKenzie goes." The speech prompted months of student strikes, marking some of the first Black student-led activism and serving as a precursor to the Civil Rights movement.
1930s: UCLA anti-establishment protests
More than 3,000 students at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1934聽took to the campus' Royce Quad to protest after five students were suspended聽amid the West Coast "red scare" for alleged communist affiliations.
They threw a police officer in the bushes, but police made no arrests. Meanwhile, with another war on the horizon, students at their sister school, UC Berkeley,听.听
Royce Quad is the exact location where on May 1.
1942: White Rose Society resistance in Germany
As fascism was unfolding in Nazi Germany, a group of students at the University of Munich got together in the summer of 1942 to form a resistance movement that聽came to be known as the White Rose Society.
The group anonymously handed out fliers admonishing Adolf Hitler's regime and decrying the persecution of the Jews. In less than a year, however, the Gestapo had arrested most of the organization's key members and put the young activists on trial in kangaroo courts, sentencing many to death.
1956: Hungarian Revolution student marches
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 may never have unfolded had an organized group of student protesters not marched through the streets of Budapest on聽Oct. 23 of that year, carrying loudspeakers and chanting,听
After reading an anti-communist proclamation demanding an independent Hungary, students stormed the radio building near the Hungarian Parliament, prompting police to open fire. The violence killed one student and marked the first bloodshed in the revolution that ultimately toppled the Soviet government.
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1960: Japan's Anpo protests
The United States and Japan in 1960 began talks to amend a treaty known as "Anpo"鈥攖he Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security鈥攚hich pledged American defensive support in exchange for Japanese land use. The negotiations聽, some of whom worried it would start another war.
Over the course of six months, student protesters broke into the prime minister's private home, occupied the airport to ground his plane, and faced off with police using water cannons. At one point a University of Tokyo student was killed. The treaty was still ratified but the activists聽.
1960-68: American civil rights protests (Greensboro to Columbia)
While there were student-led civil rights protests in the years that preceded and followed, it was from 1960 to 1968 that the height of college civil rights activism flourished in the United States.
The first major student-led event occurred when a group of Black聽students refused to leave an F.W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina, launching a series of sit-ins throughout the South. Student protests continued over the next eight years; by 1968 they were at a boiling point. The movement, combined with anti-war protests, culminated in an uprising at Columbia University.
There, more than 1,000 protesters took over five buildings and the dean was taken hostage. The events at Columbia were later called "."
1962: Rangoon University protests in Myanmar
On July 2, 1962, after a military coup overthrew parliament, students at Rangoon University in Myanmar (then Burma) gathered to voice their opposition to the new regime led by General Ne Win.
The school had long been a hub for student activism, but Win's military regime shut it down quickly,听 and blowing up the student union building. The universities were closed, and when they reopened four months later, they were under strict government control. Student activists went underground for more than two decades, meeting quietly but not resurging in public with any significant numbers until the 8888 Uprising of 1988, named for Aug. 8, 1988.
1965-75: US Vietnam War protests (SDS Teach-ins to Kent State)
Although the Vietnam War started a decade earlier, it wasn't until the mid-1960s that the U.S. student movements picked up steam when the Students for a Democratic Society began orchestrating widespread "teach-ins" to voice opposition to the war tactics used by the U.S. government.
The first of these occurred in 1965 at the University of Michigan. By 1970, tensions hit a boiling point with the Kent State tragedy in which four students were killed by the National Guard, inspiring the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young hit "Ohio" the following year.
1968: Tlatelolco Massacre in Mexico City
During the summer of 1968, unrest boiled in Mexico City as it prepared to host the Olympics. In an effort to present a good face to the world,听, particularly with regard to labor unions. Students from multiple universities organized and held numerous demonstrations over the summer.
On Oct. 2, 10 days before the games were to start, a large group marched into the plaza to hold another peaceful protest. This time, troops opened fire, killing 300 to 400 people in what came to be known as the Tlatelolco massacre.
The next day, the government-controlled media painted the incident as a violent student protest; however, many now cite that day as the
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1968-1974: LGBTQ+ protests throughout the US
In 1968, a group of students at Cornell University at Willard Straight Hall, marking one of the first major LGBTQ+ student protests in the United States. The Student Homophile League also was formed that year at Cornell, making it the second in the nation after Columbia University.
The following year, the Stonewall riots occurred in Greenwich Village, marking a tipping point in the Gay Liberation movement and fueling nationwide student activism over the next five years.
1973: 'Take Back The Night' protests against sexual violence
With second-wave feminism in full swing, college campuses in the country were primed and ready for women's rights activism in 1973 when students at the University of Southern Florida held the聽.
Taking cues from related protests in Belgium and England, students draped themselves in black sheets and marched around campus carrying broomsticks, imploring the administration to create a women's center. These student-organized events preceded the Philadelphia march two years later that kicked off the national "Take Back The Night" movement, which continues fighting sexual violence to this day.
1973: Athens Polytechnic uprising
Tensions were growing in Greece in the fall of 1973 after more than six years of military rule. On Nov. 14 that year, a group of leftist students at Athens Polytechnic staged an impromptu sit-in. What began peacefully that saw Molotov cocktails thrown and ended with the military driving a tank through university gates.
No Polytechnic students were killed, but 24 civilians died, including several high school students. Following the incident, a high-ranking military officer leveraged the events that unfolded to stage a counter-coup, overturning the dictatorship that had been in power since 1967.
1976: Soweto Youth Uprising in South Africa
The Soweto uprising in 1976 marked the fiercest resistance to apartheid the South African government had seen up to that point. It began on June 16 when a group of students, emboldened by the growing Black Consciousness Movement, marched to Orlando Stadium under the guidance of the Soweto Students' Representative Council.
The immediate impetus was the government's implementation of Afrikaans聽as the official language taught in schools. Police responded with swift violence, killing up to 700 people, according to many estimates (though the government reported it as 176). Many South Africans who'd previously been uninvolved with the anti-apartheid movement were enraged by the police violence and jumped in in full force. Some historians cite the uprising as one of the聽.
1989: Tiananmen Square occupation in China
The Tiananmen Square massacre in China remains one of the most infamous student-led protests in world history.
It came in the wake of the death of Hu Yaobang, a high-ranking Communist Party official who'd become a reformer later in life. Political organization unfolded as pro-democracy students gathered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square聽to pay their respects. The crowd grew as students from other universities caught word and came down, prompting an occupation that escalated over the next six weeks with hunger strikes and other demonstrations.
On May 20, 1989, martial law was declared; on June 2, after more than a month of clashes, the military moved in with tanks, opening fire on hundreds and producing the iconic "Tank Man" photo. Death toll numbers vary from several hundred to thousands.
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1989: Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
Few student activist groups can say they were responsible for toppling a government, but that was the case for the youth of the Velvet Revolution. Most impressively, it was accomplished with almost no violence.
On Nov. 17, 1989, in what was then Czechoslovakia, about 15,000 students entered Prague after days of anti-communist demonstrations. Riot police attacked them, but there were no serious injuries. However, a聽 set the stage for negotiations. Students met with Communist Party officials and continued striking over the next week and a half. By Nov. 29, they had succeeded in changing the Constitution. By the end of the year, a new president had been elected following four decades of one-party rule.
1998: Trisakti shootings in Indonesia
On May 12, 1998, frustrated by the Asian financial crisis and upset with their government, students at Trisakti University聽in Jakarta, Indonesia, staged a nonviolent protest, marching from their university to the legislative building. After being stopped by police not far from campus, the students' march transitioned into a sit-in, but riot police showed up, and students began dispersing. As students were returning to campus, police opened fire from behind, killing four.
Public outrage over the slayings led to the聽, who had been ruling as a dictator for 30 years.
1999: Iran student protests over free speech
Dubbed by some as the聽聽the response to the 1999 student protests at Tehran University was among the most brutal in student activist history. After a group of students peacefully protested the shutdown of a reformist newspaper, paramilitary officers raided student dormitories, setting beds on fire, breaking windows, grabbing women by the hair, and throwing students out windows.
At least one student died, and as demonstrations broke out nationwide over the next six days, thousands more were arrested. About 70 vanished without a trace. Rather than bringing greater freedom to Iran, the incident led to increased government suppression that included new "thought crime" laws.
2006: 'A Day Without Immigrants' demonstrations
On May 1, 2006, immigrants' rights groups in the United States organized "A Day Without Immigrants," .
Students played a huge role in the protests, which saw 1 million to 2 million people marching in Los Angeles alone. In the Santa Barbara School District, roughly one-third of the student population was absent and in the Los Angeles Unified School District, in grades 6 through 12, accounting for 27% of the total. In Hillsborough County, Florida, about 12% of middle and high school students stayed home.
2010: London tuition protests
After the United Kingdom's coalition government announced an increase to the cap on higher education tuition fees in 2010, university students throughout the country took to the streets to protest the growing cost of education.
Some of the biggest demonstrations took place in London, where 30,000 to 50,000 students marched and chanted. Riot police showed up聽in Westminster amid window-smashing and bonfires and kettled some in the crowd, a move that led to later criticism. Opponents argued that the police tactic, which essentially corrals protesters into one area for long periods, put them at risk of being crushed and denied them fundamental rights to food, water, and bathroom facilities.
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2011: Arab Spring fueled by youth
Although the mass protests that broke out in numerous Middle Eastern countries in 2011 (nicknamed the "Arab Spring") were carried out by people of all ages, students played a huge part in organizing and providing sustained momentum.
The youth movement has been credited for much of its success in countries like Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, and Bahrain. Before the uprisings, students were also a driving force in Tahrir Square during the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"The events of the past few months have shown us that聽," author Stephanie Schwartz said at the time. "... Social media, hip hop, the arts, and comedy have all played a role in anti-regime advocacy."
2011-13: Student education reform protests in Chile
Sometimes referred to as the "Chilean Winter," students carried out widespread protests throughout Chile between 2011 and 2013.
The demonstrations called attention to the educational system privatized in the early 1980s under the Augusto Pinochet regime. Students criticized profit-based models and advocated for free public education, clashing repeatedly with police聽during the two-year period during which, at times, tear gas and water cannons were employed against them.
Although the significant changes the students requested never came to fruition, they were successful in causing a shakeup in the administration, including the minister of education.
2013: Black Lives Matter demonstrations
After the 2013 acquittal of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black youth shot in a Florida suburb, a wave of "I am Trayvon Martin" protests spread across the United States. In Miami-Dade County,听 reported student walkouts following the verdict, with other schools reporting similar protests.
The movement, which became , captured the world's attention聽as news reports of police brutality and systematic racism continued to surface.
2013: Student debt protests at New York universities
In the wake of the Great Recession and subsequent Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, a group of students in 2013聽 held by New York University's Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM). The students were protesting the student debt incurred to attend the school. Over the next six years, SLAM continued holding rallies that grew in size, incorporating neighboring New York universities and gaining national attention.
In 2018, one student reported being聽, who allegedly said his financial aid would be in jeopardy if he didn't quit protesting. This prompted a new wave of demonstrations. The cancellation聽of some student debt was just one of many topics tackled in the first few months聽of the Biden administration.
2014: Jadavpur University protests against sexual violence
After a female student was molested on campus in 2014, students began protesting at Jadavpur University in Calcutta, India. When their requests for an investigation were not met, they encircled several administration officials, including the vice-chancellor, in a practice known as "gheraoing" (essentially encircling a person or group of people).
Police arrived and split them up violently, using batons, and allegedly molested some women protesters. The brutal police response set off another wave of protests that lasted four more months,听. After some students' "fast until death," the vice chancellor resigned.
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2014: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution
A group of student activists in 2014 led a strike in an election for the city's highest executive. Organizers set up protests聽outside Hong Kong's Central Government Complex and Tamar Park while 13,000 students assembled at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Dense parts of the city, including Admiralty, Causeway Bay, and Mong Kok, were occupied for聽79 days.听
Police unleashed a brutal response聽that included tear gas, beatings, and alleged involvement by triad gangsters. A local news station captured a four-minute police beating of a pro-democracy Civil Party member, prompting further demonstrations and unrest.
During the clearance, protesters used umbrellas to defend themselves, and photos that emerged earned them the nickname "Umbrella protesters." As a result of the demonstrations, Hong Kong police became more aggressive in their tactics, imprisoning numerous participants. The student movement was聽.
2016: Uganda's Makerere University protests
When lecturers went on strike over budget cuts in August 2016 at Makerere University鈥攖he 鈥擴ganda's central government threatened the school with closure; however, educators voted to continue demonstrating, and many students marched in solidarity.
However, the vote angered other students, who argued that staff should seek solutions that would not force the school to shut down. Tensions escalated, and on Nov. 1, President Yoweri Museveni closed the prestigious university "indefinitely." As this was unfolding, military police raided the home of a local king in Kasese, slaughtering more than 100 people, including children.
These separate issues converged, bringing student unrest to a new level and inciting violence and the destruction of property. The school remained closed for nearly four weeks before an agreement was reached.
2016: 'Love Trumps Hate' student rallies
After Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in 2016, students nationwide walked out of classes and organized protests聽against the soon-to-be leader, who they said promoted hateful rhetoric. Using the hashtag #lovetrumpshate鈥攁 reference to one of Hillary Clinton's campaign slogans鈥攖housands of student marches took place throughout the country following the election.
The student protests paved the way for the post-inaugural 2017 Women's March鈥攖he聽.
2017: #MeToo movement against sexual harassment
Although social activist Tarana Burke first coined the phrase in 2006, it wasn't until actor Alyssa Milano tweeted on Oct. 15, 2017, that the #MeToo hashtag became a viral women's movement.
The tweet, which was posted 10 days after The New York Times published a story on sexual harassment allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, sparked student demonstrations worldwide. As allegations against other men unfolded,听 of the movement, particularly on college campuses.
2018: 'March For Our Lives' against gun violence
Students staged a walkout two days after a mass shooter killed 17 students聽at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,听on Feb. 14, 2018.
A tearful speech on Feb. 17 by survivor Emma Gonz谩lez went viral, launching a nationwide student movement for gun control. Twenty students at Marjory Stoneman founded an organization called Never Again MSD and began planning a rally they dubbed "March For Our Lives."
The event took place on March 24 in Washington聽D.C., along with more than 800 related marches across the United States. With a turnout of between 1 and 2 million people, it was one of the聽.
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2019: Global climate strikes
Students were at the forefront of across and all 50 states in 2019, inspired by Swedish then-teenage activist聽Greta Thunberg. Experts who study social protests noted that these protests were different than those of the past due to the .
2020: Protests against police brutality
across the United States after a viral video showed the , but those weren't the only reactions. Because the country was also facing the coronavirus pandemic, some chose the digital realm to 聽about violence instigated by law enforcement.
2021: #FeesMustFall movement in South Africa
More than two decades after the end of apartheid, students in South Africa protested in 2021聽to ask the government to even the playing field with , to give lower-income South Africans聽more professional options. Protests ramped up after a .听
