New Report: College Classes Are Becoming More Progressive Over Time

NEW YORK, NY – College is a crucial time of formation for many young adults. In recent years, public confidence in universities has steeply declined as many Americans worry that higher education has become too ideological and political. However, this skepticism has remained unverified as there is little data showing exactly what universities are teaching over time. 

In a new Manhattan Institute report, Iván Marinovic, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, gives insight into higher education’s gradual politicization by documenting changes in course descriptions over time. Marinovic measures 7.3 million course-year records from 111 universities between 2000 and 2025 and evaluates whether they are progressive or Western-canon courses based on a list of key words found in the class descriptions. He finds that progressive language has spread across course catalogs, while references to the Western canon have declined. Specifically, the progressive course share more than doubled from 4.82% to 10.80%, while the canon share moved from 4.75% to 4.43%. Social sciences has the highest progressive course share, at 23.1% in 2025, but professional schools show the fastest growth, more than tripling their share. At Stanford, over 25% of law courses now match the progressive list. Even STEM, where such language was almost absent in 2000, has seen its share double. 

Drawing on his qualitative reading of course descriptions, Marinovic argues that some courses explicitly aim to cultivate an activist mindset, while emphasizing that more research and transparency are needed to assess classroom teaching. He urges universities to publish course descriptions, syllabi, reading lists, and course-level enrollment counts in consistent formats and preserve archives for comparisons over time. After all, a university confident in its curriculum has nothing to lose from letting others see it.  

Click here to read the full report.