ASU London opened in London on Wednesday with a Union Jack classic launch that gave the new provider six undergraduate degree programs and a route to two degrees in as little as four years. The opening took place in the Tait Building and drew about 300 people to an hourlong program.
London degrees and Arizona pathways
ASU London is a new independent, U.K.-degree-awarding higher education provider founded by Arizona State University. The six undergraduate degree programs are business management, computer science, electrical and electronic engineering, engineering with artificial intelligence, engineering with mechatronics systems and global design engineering.
This fall, 320 students are studying at ASU London, guided by U.K.-based faculty working with faculty from Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and W. P. Carey School of Business. The model gives students a three-year bachelor's degree in London, then an accelerated one-year master's degree at ASU.
Michael Goodwin at the Tait Building
Michael Goodwin, the managing director of ASU London, told the audience of about 300 people that the opening would create a higher education proposition that is fit for the future. He said, “We’re here to celebrate the opening of what we believe will become one of the pioneering new providers of higher education globally” and added that the school’s challenge-based learning approach, innovative program design, global student pathways and commitment to training graduates are why he believes it is creating a higher education proposition that’s fit for the future.
The opening was staged in an hourlong program at the Tait Building, part of the Clerkenwell campus of City St. George’s, University of London. That setting places ASU London inside an established London campus while it starts operating as its own degree-awarding provider.
Sir Malcom Grant on the pathway
Sir Malcom Grant said, “I don’t think this has happened before, and that is what is so extraordinary.” He also said, “We can take students internationally, give them three years’ education here in London, and then they may go onto a master’s program (at ASU).”
That claim sets the school’s pitch apart from a standard exchange or partner arrangement: ASU London is not only offering undergraduate study in London, it is presenting a defined academic route into an Arizona State University master's degree in a compressed timeline. The unanswered practical test is how many students will move from the London bachelor's degree into the one-year master's degree, and that will be the measure of whether the pathway becomes more than a launch-day promise.
