A new study says more female freshmen at American colleges identify with the political left than ever before.

It also shows the biggest gap politically between freshmen women and men.

The study comes from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). Started in 1966, the study polls freshmen at four-year colleges and universities around the country. Last year, the study gathered information from nearly 138,000 students at 184 schools.

HERI asks students how they identify politically: liberal, far left, conservative, far right, or moderate (“middle of the road”).

Traditionally, most students identify as "moderate."

But last year, when the 2016 U.S. presidential election between victor Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton occurred, 41 percent of the female students identified as liberal or far left.

This was the largest percentage of young women identifying as liberal in the more than 50-year history of the study.

By comparison, just 29 percent of males identified as left leaning. HERI says the difference has never been bigger.

Around 27 percent of male students and about 18 percent of female students identified as right-leaning this time.

Why the difference?

Kevin Eagan, a professor of education at UCLA and managing director of the HERI, says there were more liberal male students than females in the 1960s and 1970s. The number of female college students identifying as liberal has been steadily increasing since the 1990s.

Eagan says the number of young people identifying with a political party has much to do with the political leadership of those parties. For example, when conservative Republican Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s, freshmen showed large decreases in the number of liberals.

Eagan says he believes that many young women identified with Hillary Clinton because she was a women and leader of the liberal Democratic Party.

Trump likely pushed women to the left through his negative actions and statements about women, Eagan said.

"With a candidate last year on the Republican side who was characterized by the media, perhaps rightfully so, as misogynistic and not really supportive of women,” he says, “I think that that just served to exacerbate this trend that we’re seeing related to women … shifting their political perspectives.”

Nesha Ruther, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin last year, says she does not identify as liberal simply because the Democratic presidential candidate was female.

Ruther says she first voted for independent and liberal senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, in the primary elections that decided who would represent the Democratic Party in the presidential race. She says she liked his views about ending police violence against African-Americans and raising taxes on the wealthy.

But after he lost, Ruther grew concerned about Trump’s calls to reduce access to abortion and support for healthcare services that mainly serve women. So she supported Clinton, she says.

Ruther, who studies English, gender and Jewish studies, is a registered Democrat. She says women choose liberalism because it addresses issues that affect them, such as equal pay for equal work, and laws affecting reproductive health.

“Liberalism … is more appealing to women because it is a movement that is for progress,” she says. “So it’s not the way things have been previously, and in that way it is more geared towards the empowerment of women, the increased social mobility of women.”

Changes over time

Hans Noel is a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington, who says most women are not liberals, and points out that 61 percent of white women without a college degree voted for Trump. But younger women who identify as feminists want to support politicians who support women’s rights, he says.

The political right in the U.S. has grown increasingly conservative, especially on issues like access to birth control, Noel says. And the political left has grown more feminist.

“What it means to be liberal, conservative, what it means to be Democratic or Republican, it evolves and changes,” he says. “It’s not like that suddenly being liberal has been pro-feminist. That’s been around for a while. But that’s certainly been a highlighted issue in the last several years, and particularly the last election.”

Noel adds that colleges and universities typically support more liberal ways of thinking. Younger women will side with the political movement that supports them, he said.

But he adds, it is important to note whether young people express their political beliefs at the voting polls: While people between age 18 and 35 represent 31 percent of U.S. voters, only about half of them voted in 2016.

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WASHINGTON — 

The administration of President Donald Trump said on Monday it will review Columbia University's federal contracts and grants over allegations of antisemitism, which it says the educational institution has shown inaction in tackling.

Rights advocates note rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias since U.S. ally Israel's devastating military assault on Gaza began after Palestinian Hamas militants' deadly October 2023 attack.

The Justice Department said a month ago it formed a task force to fight antisemitism. The U.S. Departments of Health and Education and the General Services Administration jointly made the review announcement on Monday.

"The Federal Government's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is considering Stop Work Orders for $51.4 million in contracts between Columbia University and the Federal Government," the joint statement said.

The agencies said no contracting actions had been taken yet.

"The task force will also conduct a comprehensive review of the more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments to Columbia University."

The agencies did not respond to requests for comment on whether there were similar reviews over allegations of Islamophobia and anti-Arab bias.

Columbia had no immediate comment. It previously said it made efforts to tackle antisemitism.

College protests

Trump has signed an executive order to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia was at the center of college protests in which demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel due to the humanitarian crisis caused by Israel's assault on Gaza. There were allegations of antisemitism and Islamophobia in protests and counter-protests.

During last summer's demonstrations around the country, classes were canceled, some university administrators resigned and student protesters were suspended and arrested.

While the intensity of protests has decreased in recent months, there were some demonstrations last week in New York after the expulsion of two students at Columbia University-affiliated Barnard College and after New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the removal of a Palestinian studies job listing at Hunter College.

A third student at Barnard College has since been expelled, this one related to the occupation of the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia last year.

The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.

It's part of President Donald Trump's promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.

In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department's power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of investigations, which stem from complaints.

Messages seeking comment were left with all five universities.
A statement from the Education Department criticized colleges for tolerating antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that followed. It also criticized the Biden administration for negotiating "toothless" resolutions that failed to hold schools accountable.

"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, the agency's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

The department didn't provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism. The hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia's Minouche Shafik.

An October report from House Republicans accused Columbia of failing to punish pro-Palestinian students who took over a campus building, and it called Northwestern's negotiations with student protesters a "stunning capitulation."

House Republicans applauded the new investigations. Representative Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said he was "glad that we finally have an administration who is taking action to protect Jewish students."

Trump's order also calls for a full review of antisemitism complaints filed with the Education Department since Oct. 7, 2023, including pending and resolved cases from the Biden administration. It encourages the Justice Department to take action to enforce civil rights laws.

Last week's order drew backlash from civil rights groups who said it violated First Amendment rights that protect political speech.

The new task force announced Monday includes the Justice and Education departments along with Health and Human Services.

"The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found," said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump's renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools."

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BEIJING — 

China issued its first national action plan to build a "strong education nation" by 2035, which it said would help coordinate its education development, improve efficiencies in innovation and build a "strong country."

The plan, issued Sunday by the Communist Party's central committee and the State Council, aims to establish a "high quality education system" with accessibility and quality "among the best in the world."

The announcement was made after data on Friday showed China's population fell for a third consecutive year in 2024, with the number of deaths outpacing a slight increase in births, and experts cautioning that the downturn will worsen in the coming years.

High childcare and education costs have been a key factor for many young Chinese opting out of having children, at a time when many face uncertainty over their job prospects amid sluggish economic growth.

"By 2035, an education power will be built," the official Xinhua news agency said, adding that China would explore gradually expanding the scope of free education, increase "high-quality" undergraduate enrolment, expand postgraduate education, and raise the proportion of doctoral students.

The plan aims to promote "healthy growth and all-round development of students," making sure primary and secondary school students have at least two hours of physical activity daily, to effectively control the myopia, or nearsightedness, and obesity rates.

"Popularizing" mental health education and establishing a national student mental health monitoring and early warning system would also be implemented, it said.

It also aims to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas to improve the operating conditions of small-scale rural schools and improve the care system for children with disabilities and those belonging to agricultural migrant populations.

The plan also aims to steadily increase the supply of kindergarten places and the accessibility of preschool education.

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