T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
The Chronicle
FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2011
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UNIVERSITY VENTURES EAST
by Lauren Carroll THE CHRONICLE
Among hundreds of international ventures, Duke Kunshan University has emerged as the tour de force in Duke’s global expansion movement. Scheduled to open in July 2012, the University’s China campus has fueled steady conversation among faculty members, students and administrators since the project began to take shape in 2009. Although DKU has drawn criticism because of its potential risk factors, administrators who oversee the project remain confident that they are taking all the necessary steps to create a viable institution abroad. Administrators took a major step forward June 20 when they submitted an official government proposal required to open an international institution in China, Nora Bynum, director of global strategy in the office of global strategy and programs, wrote in an email June 24. This proposal is an operational plan for both the construction and potential academic programs at DKU. The proposal will first be evaluated by the Jiangsu Province Education Bureau—the province where the city of Kunshan is located,
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outside of Shanghai—before going to the Chinese Ministry of Education for final approval. The document was submitted several months later than administrators anticipated, as Duke originally expected to offer the proposal in March. Duke administrators hope that the proposal will be approved within the next few months, Bynum said, adding that DKU campus development will continue while the approval is still pending. “There is much to work on, in terms of academic planning, for example,” Bynum said. “Construction on the Phase One buildings and operational planning also continues.” Administrators have noted that although the proposal could technically be rejected by the Chinese government, they are confident it will be accepted. Although the Fuqua School of Business will be the first school to offer degrees at DKU— a Masters in Management Studies program to enroll students in 2012 and an Executive Masters of Business Administration to begin in 2013—academic planning is still in its early stages, said Fuqua professor Jeanette Song, a SEE KUNSHAN ON PAGE A-24