Arizona State University (ASU) is set to offer degree programmes in London, allowing students to complete an undergraduate course in the UK and receive automatic admission to postgraduate study in the US.

ASU London’s first cohort will begin in September 2026, with The Engineering & Design Institute London (TEDI), which was co-created by ASU in 2020, incorporated into the new institution.

TEDI’s approach to non-traditional project-based learning will be emulated at the new campus, with additional courses on offer including business management, computer science and electronic engineering.

The degree programmes launching in the first year will combine a three-year UK bachelor’s degree from ASU London with a choice of one-year accelerated master’s degrees at ASU.

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The university said this will enable students to earn two international degrees in as little as four years.

“ASU London will help students to become master problem solvers who can succeed in the evolving global economy,” said ASU president Michael Crow.

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“ASU London combines the appeal of British higher education and American innovation in applied learning, all from one of the world’s great cities.”

It comes as universities and international students in the US face an increasingly hostile environment under the Donald Trump administration.

ASU has mostly avoided direct confrontation with the president, with university officials confirming in October that the institution had not been asked to sign the controversial compact for higher education.

Malcolm Grant, chair of the board of trustee directors of ASU London, told ����Vlog that the decision to launch the new institution was partly because student numbers at TEDI “were not rising in the way that we had hoped” because of a lack of brand recognition.

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Grant, former president and provost at UCL, added that he hoped the new institution would offer students in the UK more choice. “What I’ve seen over many years is the increasing convergence of UK higher education – more and more institutions looking more and more the same.”

He said there is “significant risk aversion” across the sector, particularly given the financial challenges universities are facing.

The new campus is expected to appeal to students from the US who want to study in London, particularly as the institution will inherit TEDI’s degree-awarding powers.

Grant said the Office for Students, the English higher education regulator, had been “constructive” during the process of establishing the new institution but he described working through “the British bureaucratic jungle” as “quite an eye-opener”, with the system “not oriented towards innovation at all”.

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He added that while the new institution would take domestic students “at the fee level at which we’re capped, we can’t survive solely on domestic students”.

“I think for the rest we would be looking to attract American students and students from the rest of the world.”

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helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com