“Although a majority of Amer­i­cans believes higher edu­ca­tion remains crit­ical to the nation’s com­pet­i­tive­ness and the best way for indi­vid­uals to achieve the Amer­ican Dream, 83 per­cent say that higher edu­ca­tion must inno­vate for the United States to main­tain its global lead­er­ship, according to a new North­eastern Uni­ver­sity survey. The national opinion poll, con­ducted for North­eastern by FTI Con­sulting, under­scores the cen­trality of higher edu­ca­tion to the country’s com­pet­i­tive­ness and char­acter, but also illus­trates the belief of most Amer­i­cans — par­tic­u­larly those under 30 — that the world’s pre­em­i­nent higher edu­ca­tion system must change.”