[cm2187]

Don't think covid affected university reputations that much. Slogans like "decolonize maths" and skin colour based recruitment and award of degrees give me very little confidence even in modern STEM degrees from formerly prestigious universities.

[BriggyDwiggs42]

These are niche talking point if you aren’t terminally online. Most people probably aren’t even considering politics, it’s just an issue of cost and roi. Degrees are oversaturated and insanely expensive.

[tivert]

Honestly, I think universities took their good reputations for granted, and so chose to pursue other goals than maintain them.

I don't think any institution can maintain the confidence of the general public without being scrupulously neutral on controversial things (or at least scrupulously respectful of all common perspectives) and staying focused on widely-shared values.