The University has named two individuals to top administrative positions at Duke Kunshan University.
Liu Jingnan—former president of Wuhan University, DKU’s academic partner—will serve as chancellor of the new China campus, the University announced Thursday. Mary Bullock, former president of Agnes Scott College, will serve as the executive vice chancellor. As chancellor—a largely ceremonial position—Liu will act as the external face of DKU, and Bullock, a U.S.-China relations scholar, will be the chief academic and executive leader.
Additionally, Nora Bynum was appointed vice provost for DKU and China initiatives. Bynum previously served as associate vice provost for global strategy and programs, and she has played a significant role in the development of Duke Kunshan University.
The Chinese Ministry of Education recently awarded DKU preparation approval, which allows administrators to move forward with academic and strategic planning. Administrators are in the process of preparing the application for establishment approval, which allows the campus to open its doors for students. The process of receiving establishment approval could take more than one year, but administrators hope to be able to offer academic programs starting Fall 2014.
In several months, there will be a ceremony to formally announce the preparation approval in China, Provost Peter Lange said at Thursday’s Academic Council meeting.
Lange added that some of the upcoming goals for DKU administrators are to hire faculty and register the campus as an independent entity with its own Board of Trustees. Campus construction slowed down in the Spring due to a “dispute,” Lange said. But the city of Kunshan, who is footing the bill for construction, has asserted that the first five buildings will be completed by July 2013.
A member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Science and Technology Commission of China’s Ministry of Education, Liu has been key lecturer on the global level. He is also vice chair of the Hubei Association for Science and Technology and vice director of Hubei Communications Society. Under his leadership from 2003 to 2008, Wuhan University has become more well-known for its academic programs and student lift and recently reformed financial management, according to the release.
Bullock’s position as executive vice chancellor means that she will be responsible for the design and delivering of top-quality academic programs at the institution.
A senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Bullock served as the director of its Asia Program, and as a distinguished visiting professor of China studies at Emory University from 2007 to 2012. She is currently the chair of the China Medical Board and as a director of the Henry Luce Foundation, the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations, the Asia Foundation and the Harvard-Yenching Institute.
“With the additions of Chancellor Liu and Executive Vice Chancellor Bullock, we have created a senior leadership team that is uniquely qualified to carry out our guiding vision of DKU as an elite global institution,” President Richard Brodhead said in a press release. “Their combined experience as leaders in higher education in China and the U.S. will provide the necessary expertise to move DKU forward.”
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