Understanding Public Perspectives: A Comment-Based Analysis of U.S. Higher Education Policy Reform

• In Event: Policy Without Borders: Rethinking Higher Education Reform Across Nations and Narratives

Abstract

This paper examines how members of the public view recent policy debates in U.S. higher education (HE). Drawing on the Narrative Policy Framework, the study reviews more than 96,000 comments submitted to five federal negotiated-rulemaking processes from 2017 to 2025. A three-step analysis (theme coding, sentiment scoring, and discourse reading) reveals four recurring storylines that mix praise, criticism, ideology, and assessments of HE’s social role. Taken together, the narratives suggest that citizens engage with policy questions in nuanced ways. The analysis also suggests gaps between federal objectives, campus practice, and their own expectations. By tracing public viewpoints, the study suggests how public commentary can steer future HE rule-making toward goals that resonate more closely with society’s values.

Author

• Cecilia Bibbo, University at Albany - SUNY