Is DKU really five stars?

Duke Kunshan University opened its doors—the doors of a nearby five star Kunshan hotel—in late August, with students and faculty based in a hotel due to ongoing construction of its physical campus. Now, nearly halfway through the semester, DKU has opened another set of doors—this time its own—with its Conference Center. After this rocky start, what does Duke stand to gain from its partnership with Wuhan University in establishing DKU? We find that our collaboration is suffering from the rush to launch DKU as well as the outlook for DKU student experiences.

Examining the reasons for this venture, we ask how students going to DKU will enrich Duke upon returning from their global semester. While Duke Engage has significant post-program elements designed to bring student experiences back to campus, improvements to Duke from DKU’s undergraduate global semester are uncertain and seem to lack such structure. We also see several physical failures in the start of DKU. In moving from idea to reality, DKU raises questions about whether the administration prematurely launched the university. Classes were planned to begin in August with five of the six campus buildings open—instead, DKU started with zero, using spaces in a nearby hotel for accommodations. The Conference Center marks the first of the five buildings to open this Fall, and we question why a university would open without its physical premises constructed and ready for use.

We harbor further concerns about whether students attending DKU will receive the university experience they are due. Phase two of DKU’s development involves the expansion of the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum, but we are concerned about lingering questions of academic freedom. Such a curriculum may be incomplete if topics like Western political philosophy or China’s negative environmental impacts are off limits given rumors of government bans of some topics. Students may also feel pressure to hold back opinions contrary to Chinese academic or cultural norms. Meanwhile, tuition for Chinese students is RMB 24,400 and $15,000 for international students. Additionally, we wonder about the lives of students outside the classroom. Given the small size of the student body at roughly 100 total students and its diverse demographic, will DKU see any sort of vibrant extracurricular life? It is hard to imagine spirited Editorial Board discussions, well-attended cultural events or intramural sports opportunities for students, an issue that we hope to see prioritized in the interests of a holistic experience for DKU students.

Despite these reservations, we acknowledge that DKU will contribute to Duke’s global image and emphasis on global-minded approaches to education. Through the complete immersion of DKU students in a truly mixed and international student body, DKU will foster huge cultural exchanges in all the interactions of its students that will shape their lives and global outlooks. Additionally, much stands to be gained from taking this opportunity to examine how liberal arts educations look elsewhere in the world as DKU administrators tour Chinese universities and take in those perspectives.

No matter what happens, we applaud Duke’s tenacity in starting this collaboration and hope for the best as Duke and DKU look to blaze the trail of fostering international institutions of higher learning.