In less than a year and a half the University will enroll a crop of students to attend its new campus in China. While it is not yet known how many students will matriculate or how much they will pay in tuition, it is clear that the construction of Duke Kunshan University is well under way.
The success or failure of this grandiose project will carry serious implications for the way Duke and the rest of the higher education community defines itself in a globalized world.
This is the second editorial in a series of two about the ongoing construction of Duke Kunshan University. Yesterday we discussed the steps the administration must take to get faculty members on board with the Kunshan project. Today we will explore how the University community should react to a Duke campus in the world’s most populous nation.
Many questions about this project still linger and the administration should continue to answer them as best it can. Although this Board has been critical of the lack of information surrounding Kunshan in the past, we believe it is time for the campus dialogue surrounding the China campus to shift in its tone.
The debate is no longer about whether Duke should build a campus in China—fortunately for some and unfortunately for others that is a foregone conclusion. The Kunshan effort has already been approved by the Board of Trustees, critiqued by the Academic Council and set on an irrevocable course by the administration.
Now it is time for the University community to focus on defining Kunshan in its own terms and understanding what it means for higher education.
The question of what Kunshan should not be is perhaps the easiest one to address at this stage.
It should not merely become a massive reputational tool that gives Duke a foothold to garner publicity in China. Nor should it be an attempt to undertake a form of educational colonialism that imposes American teaching values on a foreign culture.
While there is clearly a scramble for China already underway—Stanford University is building a facility at Peking University and New York University recently announced plans to open a campus in Shanghai by Fall 2013—Duke’s actions must not be dictated solely by its peers.
What Kunshan should be is a window into a country that is the world’s second largest economy but one of its most frequently misunderstood nations.
Students and faculty should view the Kunshan campus as an opportunity to reach across cultural barriers. Anxiety toward China is prevalent across the American business and political landscape. Too often our discussions of this nation are colored by cultural bias or xenophobia. Duke Kunshan University should serve as an avenue to break down these cultural barriers.
All members of the Duke community are stakeholders in this effort abroad now. It is time for us to take ownership over this project. And while we should still question the administration rigorously every step of the way, mere obstructionism is no longer appropriate.
We still harbor tremendous optimism for Duke Kunshan University, provided that students, faculty and the entire University community turn their attention to making this project the best it can be.
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