‘Toward 2025 and Beyond’: ASU releases updated goals

Arizona State University has changed its national reputation to an American postsecondary institution that leads the way in education, comprehensive success, and positive social impact.

“[ASU] has become the foundational model for the New American University, a new paradigm for the public research university that transforms higher education. ASU is committed to excellence, access and impact in everything that it does,” said the ASU Office of the President.

ASU is on the cutting edge of trying to redefine what higher education is and should be by being both relative, contextual, still aspirational, but it is institution specific; it’s not a nationwide trend yet. So, ASU continues to be the leader,” Jeanne Allen, founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, said. “ASU understands that in order to for every student to be educated at a higher level, which is the point of higher education, we have to deliver it differently, we have to execute it differently, we have to tailor it to the needs of students and we still have to be able to instill the core educational values that allow them to be active participants in the future.”  

Continuing its path towards innovation and the future of higher education, ASU President Michael Crow and the Office of the President released an updated “New American University: Toward 2025 and Beyond” report outlining key focus areas and objectives that drive the university.

According to the university, its mission and goals are to:

Demonstrate leadership in academic excellence and accessibility  

According to ASU, the university will accomplish the goal by maintaining the school’s current principle of creating access to higher education for all and creating access to match Arizona’s socioeconomic diversity.

By 2025 ASU also wants to improve freshman persistence to greater than 90 percent, increase the graduation rate to more than 85 percent or more than 32,000 graduates, and enroll 1000,000 online students.

All of these missions have the common goal of engaging learners of all levels.

Establish national standing in academic quality and impact on colleges and schools in every field

The school is hopeful that by 2025 ASU will attain a national standing in the academic quality by being in the top five percent for each college; attain a national standing in the learning value; and become the leading university academically in at least one department or school within each college.

Establish ASU as a leading global center for interdisciplinary research, discovery and development by 2025

Currently a hub for innovation and research, ASU hopes to become the leading American center for discovery and scholarships in integrated social sciences and comprehensive arts and sciences.

The university will be enhancing research competitiveness to more than $815 million in annual research expenditures and transform its regional economic competitiveness through research, discovery, and value-added programs making ASU an even more recognized leading center for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Enhance the university’s local impact and social embeddedness

ASU hopes to enhance its social impact by strengthening the state’s interactive network of teaching, learning and discovery resources that reflect ASU’s “comprehensive knowledge enterprise,” as well as co-developing solutions addressing social, technical, cultural and environmental issues facing Arizona.

The university will also meet the needs of 21st-century learners with its universal learner initiative and increasing individual success through personalized education pathways and “promoting adaptability to all accelerated social-technical changes.”

Crow’s mission and goals for the university are part of what has transformed ASU to the ‘most innovative’ school, ranking above MIT and Stanford.

What makes [Michael Crow] unique is that he is just doing it,” Allen said. “Some of the ideas are very new. He allows for and encourages designed thinking about what the institution could be doing better on a regular basis. Most institutions say, ‘let’s do a strategic plan’ and then walk away, he is in constant iteration.”

ASU currently ranks the No.1 university for innovation, ranked in the top one percent of the world’s most prestigious universities, a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students, a top ‘Best College Value’ in public higher education, and a top public university of choice for international students.

To view the goals and missions, click here and for a list of ASU’s current rankings, click here.

Emily Richardson

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