Clemson Ranked Among Nation’s “Most Trusted Universities” in Morning Consult Survey

Clemson University was found to be one of the “Most Trusted Universities” in a recent nationwide survey conducted by decision intelligence company Morning Consult, who defined trust as the belief in an institution to do the right thing.

Clemson ranked #3 among public universities nationally and 19^th overall. 

“These survey results are another indicator of the power of the Clemson brand and speak to a tremendous regard for our outstanding faculty, staff, students, the success of our alumni, and the respect of the leadership of our Board of Trustees,” said Jim Clements, Clemson University President.

The Morning Consult Most Trusted Universities report measures public trust in the top 135 doctoral research universities featured in the U.S. News’ 2022 Best National University Rankings and explores how trust varies among diverse groups and different types of institutions.

Per Morning Consult, the main survey was conducted June 11-15, 2022, among a representative sample of 11,050 U.S. adults, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-1 percentage point. An additional survey was conducted June 13-24, 2022, among 1,000 high schoolers ages 16 to 18, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-3 percentage points. Universities are sorted by net trust, or the share of respondents who said they trust each brand to do the right thing “a lot” or “some” minus the share who said, “not much” or “not at all.”

According to Dr. Rahul Choudaha, Morning Consult author of the study: “Trust is one of the leading metrics of a university’s overall brand health. Our data shows that employers (54%) and students (56%) are even more likely to say that trust will play an important role in a university’s reputation in the future.”