The Future of Arizona State University

ASU President Michael M. Crow shares his vision for a truly inclusive, lifelong learning model at Arizona State University. Rather than limiting its mission to traditional degree-seeking students, ASU aims to become a comprehensive learning institution that serves individuals and families at every life stage—from homeschooling support and elder care education to mid-career reskilling and advanced degrees. Crow challenges the conventional boundaries of higher education by calling for a university model built around universal access, flexible delivery, and real-world service. Whether you're 18 or 65, on campus or online, ASU’s future is about ensuring that education is available, adaptable, and impactful for all. This is essential viewing for educators, lifelong learners, workforce leaders, and policymakers invested in transforming public universities to meet the evolving needs of society.

So one of the things we're struggling with and trying to do is how do we reach more families and more people? So I don't think that, you know, that at least this kind of university was intended to only educate people to get a college degree. There's all kinds of things that you need in your life beyond college degrees that we have the ability to contribute to. So maybe your family needs a way to homeschool your children. Maybe you have elderly parents and you need three courses on, you know, how to best engage with your parents. Maybe you're switching careers at age 35 and you wish you had three accounting courses.

And so why can't the university just be available to everyone with just about anything that they would need related to learning? And if you want to go to college when you're 18, we got a path for you. If you want to come on campus, we have a way for you to do that. If you want to pick up a PhD in counseling psychology, no problem. If you end up not knowing that you want to go to college till you're 45, you should be able to do that, also, if you can't come to the university, you should be able to partake of all the things that we have.

So the aspiration that I am hoping for is a university truly connected to the people, truly connected to the to the families, to the small businesses, to the big companies that we’re of service to as many people as possible in a way that helps their lives to be better, and that we take our really tremendously privileged position inside the university, and that we leverage that to the benefit of many, many people, not just those interested in, lucky enough, or able to come to the university as a full immersion on campus student, which is really just a few people.