Slow start is a good start for DKU

Last Wednesday, the Fuqua School of Business faculty did the brick-and-mortar edifice at Duke Kunshan University one better: It proposed an actual curriculum to teach there. This proposal has long been in the wings; Fuqua has considered a Master of Management Studies program at DKU for at least six months. Nonetheless, as buildings go up for the campus’ Spring 2013 opening, it is nice to see academic plans on the table.

This is especially true now that business school’s plans appear less gung-ho and more reassuring. The Fuqua faculty’s proposal, which creates a MMS program that splits course time between Durham and China, is a cautious one—it sticks to what Duke already knows it can do well. But, in putting a tentative foot forward, Fuqua has perhaps put its best foot forward, too.

The latest proposal has much more flesh than it did when it was brought up for discussion this summer, when faculty never voted on it because of unease about the lack of student demand in China and issues of academic freedom. There was plenty of room for debate: Should the program, for instance, focus on Chinese students or a cross continental audience? The faculty could not countenance this uncertainty and, when the program came up for a vote last June, they instead tabled it for three months.

Much happened in the interim. Two new deliberative bodies—the China Faculty Council and the Academic Council’s global priorities committee—have arrived on the scene, along with the well-credentialed China education expert William Kirby, the T.M. Chang professor of China studies at Harvard, and a number of other players. These councils draw membership from across the University’s schools.

It is unclear whether or not these councils have gotten down to the brass tacks of Duke’s China plans. For instance, in an Oct. 30 meeting with the editorial board, Provost Peter Lange cited the China Faculty Council’s discussion of whether or not an urban or suburban location for DKU would be best as an example of the committee’s deliberations—an issue of more theoretical than practical interest at this stage in DKU’s development. Nonetheless, we read the new MMS proposal as a sign of the faculty’s tempering influence on DKU’s development.

The actual proposal plays it safe by emulating both the Durham campus’ MMS program and the Fuqua Cross Continent Master of Business Administration program. Despite our reservations about the MMS program, now in its third year, 87 percent of its 2011 graduates seeking employment accepted job offers by mid-October. Likewise, the Cross Continent MBA program, which launched in 2000, has proven financially viable and provides a model for shuffling students and faculty back and forth between hemispheres. These programs work well enough.

Emulation is sensible and measured. It will allow Duke to get a sense for student demand in the region without committing to a program run fully out of DKU, and will allow Duke to probe issues of curriculum quality and academic freedom.

Did we really need a shiny new campus to run a Cross Continent MMS program? Certainly not, and, as it stands, we’re not getting the most bang for our ($37 million) bucks in DKU. But this is a responsible first step toward DKU’s future.