Putting the Duke in DKU

Last Thursday, the university’s Academic Council met to discuss the beginnings of the launch of a full, four-year undergraduate degree program at Duke Kunshan University. Now in its third year, DKU currently only offers a semester-long undergraduate program and a few master’s degree programs. While there is no question that there is much room for DKU to grow, the plan to develop and introduce an entire undergraduate program for it recalls painful memories of all the setbacks DKU suffered at its beginning. Still, it promises a noble impact for DKU: empowering Kunshan to be a Chinese center of knowledge driven by a liberal arts-style education and top quality resources.

At the root of the push to bring an undergraduate program to DKU is a desire to bring the liberal arts to Chinese higher education. It is widely known that Chinese government bigwigs, wealthy families and those in positions of power prefer to send their children to the United States for college. Liberal arts education in the U.S. allows for the holistic, non-instrumental development of an intellectual person. Moving this western style of education to China would create a freestanding university not controlled by state interests that would draw upon the strengths of both local Chinese collaborators and Duke’s foremost administrators and interested faculty members.

Part of the point of expanding DKU is to build research structures in different parts of the world, thereby opening new centers of knowledge production. Bringing Chinese values, cultural facets and philosophical traditions to bear in the structure of the liberal arts creates a kind of new vibrant research space. It is one that, through its unique development, gives academia around the world more fronts on which to push the boundaries of knowledge. In an interview with The Chronicle, Provost Sally Kornbluth spoke to a goal of “impacting China for decades to come,” and if the intent is to try to start broader change in Chinese higher education through a pedagogical experiment at DKU, then by all means the initiative is exciting and much stands to be gained. While of course DKU is not the first joint venture university in China, an ambitious undergraduate program could certainly make it the foremost of such projects.

Lofty goals aside however, no discussion of DKU can neglect to mention the troubles it faced at its outset and those that have yet to be fully settled. The issue of recruiting faculty in sufficient number and quality to teach undergraduates is not an easy one, especially considering the lack of doctoral students at DKU and the unique, geographically remote offer that a position at DKU entails. Enrollment and popularity of applicants also present the fair questions of how large an applicant pool a unique university like DKU can attract. Will the target applicant be from China, Asia broadly or a wider range of international backgrounds, and how will DKU’s expansion be featured in the admissions experience of prospective Duke students with roots in China and Asia?

Ultimately, having a hand in what might be the future growth of China’s approach to higher education is likely to be a good investment if embraced by the necessary players in its creation. The move toward an undergraduate program recognizes the preeminence of the liberal arts approach to education in the world. The investment of time, energy and capital will hopefully pay off in moving centers of knowledge production and education around the globe and putting Duke at the front of the charge.