Arizona State University (ASU) has developed a reputation as a technology hub, an institution that spares no expense on equipping its faculty and student body with the latest tools available. Michael Crow, ASU’s president, has spent more than 15 years focused on innovation, and he’s proud to label the school a “New American University.”

Crow recently sat down with Emily Tate of EdScoop to talk about why he thinks his model is the future of education. What that looks like in action is an entirely new kind of higher education institution — ASU calls itself a “New American University,” in fact — whose students can be anyone, anywhere, at any time.

The decision to invest “spare no expense” on technology has made the school a global powerhouse.

“We have 3,600 faculty members, and over 2,000 of them have been trained to interact and teach and create teaching and learning environments digitally,” he told Tate. “That’s a big deal for us, with thousands of courses, hundreds of thousands of learners that we didn’t have just a few years ago. Our library is now used by people from 150 countries. We have learners from 195 countries right now who are engaged with us.”

He credits the school’s commitment to training staff and investing in technology to the fact that the cost of a degree has been reduced by 75 percent.

“We’ve gone all out at all levels—whatever technology is necessary we acquire, whatever is needed, whatever tools, whatever backup, whatever backbone, whatever storage, whatever speed, anything,” he told EdSource. “For us, what we’ve found is it’s cheaper than buildings. It’s cheaper than the traditional way that the institution advances.”