University of Southern California opens its new campus

LOS ANGELES: The University of Southern California unveiled its latest addition, USC Village expanding its campus by investing US $ 700 million for the 1.25 million square feet sprawl.

Six buildings across 15 acres are so designed that residential suites occupy the upper floors with retail anchored at the ground level. An A-frame dining hall with stained glass windows and gothic-style seating serves meals for dozens of palettes. The campus’ centrepiece, a 20-foot-tall statue of Hecuba, queen of Troy, was unveiled and at her base is a tribute to diversity and the studies of various disciplines.

Indian students make up the second largest cohort here. At the undergraduate level too, candidates are picking USC to get their first degree. This year, 53 of USC’s 462 incoming freshmen international students came from India while at the graduate level, India accounted for 619 of the university’s new 2969 international enrollees.

On the sidelines of the opening ceremony, TOI caught up with CL Max Nikias, USC president, who spoke about the rising Indian student population on campus, their performance and the manner in which USC is altering the campus experience for its students.

You don’t plan to have footprints in India and set up your own campus?

Our philosophy is very different from other universities. We feel there is no way we can replicate this campus, the curriculum offerings and the overall experience anywhere else. I cannot build a village like this, or a campus experience where you get to interact with many different students of varied nationalities, which is an important part of the educational experience. After all, our curriculum offerings allow students to take different electives or even a minor. If we were to set up a campus abroad, it couldn’t offer the same educational opportunity. Because what we have here on campus is really a microcosm of the real world: we have students from 128 countries and India is number 2 after China in terms of the number of students.

You are not even a part of the MOOCs movement. Don’t you think you are growing within a small world of your own?

I was against the MOOCs movement from the very beginning. I did not believe in it. I wrote a long letter, in which I shared my views with all my peers in American higher education. I believe I have been proven right in the end. The MOOCs movement was like a hysteria - a bubble that burst and is now disappearing. At the end of the day, what is it that defines the quality of the institution? It’s the quality of your students, your admissions criteria and the quality of your faculty. And all of that is reflected in the quality of your curriculum. But with MOOCs, it’s for everybody, it’s open, there are no standards, no admission criteria. I did not feel that offering these could be consistent with the mission of our university. I felt that MOOCs would dilute that academic quality.

Could you tell us a bit about students at USC from India and China?

Students from India are very bright. And although they tend to major in engineering, we also have many students in the sciences and other disciplines and I would say the same about the Chinese. This generation of students, especially the freshmen, they know what they want. And we always tell them: It’s ok to change your major.