Survey finds that professors, already liberal, have moved further to the left

Academics, on average, lean to the left. A survey being released today suggests that they are moving even more in that direction.

Among full-time faculty members at four-year colleges and universities, the percentage identifying as “far left” or liberal has increased notably in the last three years, while the percentage identifying in three other political categories has declined. The data come from the University of California at Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute, which surveys faculty members nationwide every three years on a range of attitudes.

Here are the data for the new survey and the prior survey:

 2010-112007-8Far left12.4%8.8%Liberal50.3%47.0%Middle of the road25.4%28.4%Conservative11.5%15.2%Far right0.4%0.7%