Reconceptualizing the Contemporary Research University

Reconceptualizing the Contemporary Research University

The demand for advanced teaching and research and for the new ideas, products, and processes that are the products of the contemporary research university exceeds the currently available supply. In an era of burgeoning demand for higher education, the foremost challenge is to evolve new models for the contemporary research university as well as to increase the capacity of existing research universities by an order of magnitude. Historical models are fraught with inherent design limitations that hinder adaptability to real-time demand at scale, impeding our potential to develop appropriate organizational structures, learning technologies, and transdisciplinary curricula commensurate to the challenges that confront global humanity. In order to accelerate the evolution of our universities, we must develop new models focused not only on discovery but also commitment to access to a broad demographic and greater social embeddedness. Research universities must exhibit academic enterprise and make the case for investment from all sectors predicated on outcomes. Despite the imperative for new and differentiated institutional models, however, academia must never retreat from its core values. In assuming the task of pioneering the foundational model for a New American University—an egalitarian institution committed to academic excellence, inclusiveness to a broad demographic, and maximum societal impact—Arizona State University serves as a case study for such a reconceptualized new model.

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Michael M. Crow
President, Arizona State University

Michael M. Crow became the sixteenth president of Arizona State University in 2002. He is guiding the transformation of ASU into one of the nation’s leading public metropolitan research universities, an institution combining academic excellence, inclusiveness, and societal impact—a model he terms the “New American University.” During his tenure ASU has established major transdisciplinary research initiatives and witnessed an unprecedented academic infrastructure expansion, tripling of research expenditures, and attainment of record levels of diversity. He was previously executive vice provost of Columbia University. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and National Academy of Public Administration, he is the author of books and articles analyzing knowledge enterprises and science and technology policy.