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Most of the college presidents except for presidents in for-profit colleges have plans to elect Barack Obama this year.

 In a survey made by Inside Higher Ed among more than 1,000 college presidents, most of them specified that they planned  to vote for Obama,  though only a few of them believed that the president has satisfied his assurance for higher education.

From the beginning, President Obama has had strong attachment with higher education institution. He was taught at the University of Chicago and had gained significant talent from the higher education institution, which he has been using for his administration.

President Obama has been focusing more on Americans getting higher education than his predecessors. He has supported massive infusions of funds for higher education, especially for community colleges. However, Republicans in Congress have slashed of most of Obama’s proposals.

In the survey made by the Inside Higher Ed, more than 6,500 college presidents out of 1,000 said that they planned to vote for Obama in the upcoming election in the fall. Support to the president is more in public sector. 66% of community colleges, 85% of public baccalaureate colleges and 75% of public master and doctoral degree institutions support Obama. The lowest level of support came from for-profit college presidents. Only 29% of them said they plan to vote for Obama.

Inside Higher Ed asked the college presidents whether Obama has fulfilled all his promises in higher education, only 36% of them said yes. Only 18% of for-profit college presidents said yes to this question. For-profit institutions have clashed with the Obama administration several times.

The reason for why college presidents in the U.S are supporting may be only a few of them sees most of the higher education agenda coming from the Republicans. When the college presidents were asked whether the Republican presidential candidates have clear vision that would help higher education in America, only 10% of them said “yes”.

However, higher proportion of favorable answers for Republican presidential candidates comes from for-profit college presidents. The figure is much lower for the remaining higher education institutions. Only 4% of public doctoral intuitions agree with the above statement, while 3 % of public master degree colleges agree to it. However, the entire private doctoral university president did not agree with this.

Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public universities is one of the important higher education leaders who have strong ties with Republican. He has served in the Reagan and Ford administrations as well. He warned too much reading into the view of the Republicans have said very little about their higher education views. He said that the Republican chiefs have not focused much on higher education. He added that we assumed that they had articulated a higher education vision, which has been the case before.

McPherson also says that the Republican nominees have plenty of time to express their views on higher education. He points out that many higher education issues are bipartisan. The Pell grants and research funding have gained the support of many Republicans.