Are left-wing American professors indoctrinating their students?

OF ALL THE demographic divisions among America’s Democrats and Republicans, few are as wide or as deep as the educational divide. Consider how white voters cast their ballots in the 2016 presidential election. Some 64% of non-college-educated whites plumped for Donald Trump. Among those with a university degree, the figure was just 38%. Congressional elections feature a similar split: a recent analysis by the Wall Street Journal found that of the 30 House districts with the highest concentration of college-educated voters, all but three are represented by Democrats.

This educational divide is caused in part by changing political attitudes. A survey conducted in 2015 by the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, found that 24% of Americans with a university degree held consistently liberal positions on a range of political issues—including government performance, the social safety-net, the environment and immigration—up from 5% two decades ago. For those who had studied in graduate school, the figure was 31%. Of Americans without a degree, just 5% held such liberal opinions.