One of the world’s foremost academics, Michael M Crow has been the president of the Arizona State University (ASU) since 2002, and was a speaker at last week’s ASU+GSV & Emeritus Summit in Gurugram – India’s biggest education event that got together thought leaders and innovators to explore transformative solutions for education in a world shaped by generative AI. Known for reshaping education in the 21st century, Crow talked to FE’s Vikram Chaudhary about student employability, education under Donald Trump, and why the ASU is so popular with Indian students. Excerpts:
Will study in America be impacted under the Trump administration, and the recent illegal immigrant crackdown?
Indian students need not worry about the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants. Campuses will be unaffected. The crackdown is not on students who are in the US with valid student visas.
How many Indian students are currently enrolled in the ASU?
Today, the ASU is one of the largest public universities in the US, with 80,000 students enrolled on campus and 65,000 online. With almost 6,600 Indian students currently enrolled, India is the top country of origin for the ASU’s international student community, and they are highly capable.
Capable in academics…
Capable in everything – they adapt to their new environments seamlessly. At the ASU, some Indian students have become leaders. Two of our student body presidents are from India. I have observed that Indian students usually don’t feel ‘left out’ – they run for elections, become campus leaders, get campus jobs, internships, etc.
And now Indian students can study the ASU’s global courses even in India.
How?
We have joined hands with several educational institutions in India, allowing students to pursue the ASU’s undergraduate and Master’s degrees in various disciplines. These institutes include Rajalakshmi Engineering College (Chennai), Anurag University (Hyderabad), Chitkara University (Punjab), and Shiv Nadar University (Greater Noida).
Indian students can study hundreds of courses at these partner institutes, utilising the ASU’s learning assets, and also get automatically admitted to the ASU, where they can pursue further studies – once they complete their course in India, they can come to the ASU for graduate training, and can also get OPT (Optional Practical Training) in the US and then come back to India. The opportunities are unlimited.
Have you also tied-up with Indian public universities?
We haven’t yet, but are looking forward to – as some of them are among the finest in the world.
Why is the ASU so popular with Indian students?
There are many reasons. The ASU is the top public university in the US for innovation (ahead of the MIT and Stanford). International students choose the ASU also because of the number of majors that we offer, the types of programmes we run, our speed of innovation, and one of the most diverse campuses in the world where everyone feels at home.
Coming to the summit that brought you to India, are India and the US the only places where the ASU+GSV & Emeritus Summit is organised?
Yes, while it started in the US in 2010, we brought it to India a few years ago. The US edition is the biggest education summit in the world, and the India edition is the biggest in the country and possibly in this part of the world, at least in terms of value-creation and quality of participants.