> Education predicts liberal attitudes on issues such as immigration, Brexit and the death penalty, those with less education tending to adopt conservative positions. There is a crucial implication for universities. Because universities provide education, they gather individuals who tend to have liberal views. Exceptions always exist, yet the education-liberalism nexus implies that liberalism will predominate; most academics have higher degrees and students work towards degrees.

Isn't this reasoning circular?

It seems the author is taking a correlation ("liberal attitudes" and "higher education"), and then claiming that because the correlation exists, there is a causal connection that will perpetuate the correlation? But the cause is just glossed over, an implicit step in the circular thought process?

Assuming for a second that compressing political ideas down to a single "liberal vs conservative" axis is useful (I think it is actively harmful), my first question here is: why are "liberal attitudes" correlated with education?'

edit: there is a single, but shallow and unsatisfying point about the "educated class" tending to come from "creative fields" that are somehow better-suited to "liberal attitudes", I guess, but that's not really doing it for me