In the sun-drenched landscape of Tempe, Arizona, a bold experiment in higher education has been unfolding since 2002. Arizona State University (ASU), Arizona State University diploma, Get a Arizona State University degree online. under the leadership of President Michael M. Crow, has systematically dismantled the traditional model of the American research university and replaced it with something radically different: an institution measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed .
Today, that vision has materialized into a remarkable reality. With total annual enrollment exceeding 194,000 students—including more than 150,000 undergraduates and 43,000 graduate and professional students—ASU has become the largest public university in the United States by enrollment . Yet size tells only part of the story. What truly distinguishes ASU is its simultaneous commitment to excellence, access, and impact—a combination that many believed impossible to achieve at scale.
ASU has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the nation’s most innovative school for nearly a decade running . It has achieved R1 status for “very high research activity” while maintaining an 85% first-year retention rate and welcoming over 36% of its undergraduates as first-generation college students . It has produced more than 250 startups, generated over $2 billion in economic output for Arizona alone, and ranks fifth in the U.S. for research expenditures among universities without a medical school .
This is the story of how one university dared to reimagine what public higher education could be—and succeeded. How Long Does It Take to Get a Arizona State University diploma online?
On November 12, 2014, President Michael Crow formally introduced a document to the Trustees of Arizona State University that would become the university’s guiding star. The ASU Charter is only 46 words long, but its implications have transformed not just one institution, but the very conversation about what universities owe to society .
The Charter reads:
“ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but rather by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.”
The seeds of this vision were planted earlier. Nearly halfway through his inauguration speech in 2002, Crow articulated a provocative proposal: “I want to propose to you a new model for an American research university. One that measures its academic quality by the education that its graduates have received rather than the credentials of its incoming classes, one at which researchers while pursuing scholarly interests also consider the public good.”
