Arizona State retains top spot as most innovative college for 5th year

PHOENIX – Arizona State University President Michael Crow isn’t willing to take for granted that his school will be named the most innovative college in America, but he could.

U.S. News & World Report chose the Tempe-based university as best in that category for the fifth straight year. More than 1,500 four-year institutions were compared.

“We’re very grateful for this,” Crow told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Monday.

“It’s recognition of us … our faculty and staff having been able to create an institution which is really capable of responding to anyone’s learning needs.”

The rankings were released Sunday.

ASU topped Georgia State, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology and Stanford.

The report based its findings on the responses of “top college officials (asked) to identify institutions in their Best Colleges ranking category that are making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities,” according to U.S. News.

Crow said willingness of the staff at the public university’s four campuses to accept the speed of change and integrating new technologies to teach was a key factor in the continued ranking.

“Most people that go to college don’t finish. … It’s a sad occurrence,” he said.

“We’ve taken our technologies to help almost everyone to finish when they come to ASU.

“If you leave ASU and haven’t finished, we can now reach you. We have tens of thousands of students engaged with us in learning from their jobs.”

ASU has over 30,000 students enrolled online. The school’s overall enrollment is nearly 72,000.

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