Why did Duke University decide in 2014 to establish a liberal arts university in China?

The initial connection and interest were from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke. Later when the entire university became engaged, building a new liberal arts university in China, in a globally connected world with grand world challenges, had enormous appeal to the Duke faculty. It was also in alignment with Duke’s identity as a global university. Being a global university means helping to solve the major challenges our world faces and enriching our students’ experiences in a global setting. China had been growing rapidly for almost three decades at the time and that growth contributed directly and indirectly to some of the global challenges. Being on the ground in China would create enormous research and educational opportunities. And building a completely new type of liberal arts college—one designed specifically for the 21st century—itself meant establishing a higher education institution steeped in innovation. Kunshan approached Duke initially through some connections of Chinese faculty members at Duke. Later the dean of the business school became interested and engaged.  

How does the collaboration between Duke, Wuhan University, and the city of Kunshan work?

Duke University and Wuhan University (WHU) are academic partners. They collaborate on developing academic and research programs with Duke University taking the lead. Duke University was also responsible for recruiting faculty and academic staff in the early years of DKU and also took the lead in building the overall university structure including business, operations, financial, HR, and more. Duke played an important role in the design of the Phase 1 campus and in overseeing its construction. Wuhan University contributed to the development of DKU’s undergraduate degree program, collaborated on developing research programs, played a very important role in DKU communications with the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Kunshan Municipal People’s Government and in securing MOE approval of various degree programs. The MOE has explicit expectations for Duke faculty members to teach DKU courses. Kunshan provided most of the financial support for the operations cost of the University, construction costs of the campus, and the use of the land. DKU’s governing body is the DKU Board of Trustees, which includes members from Duke, WHU and Kunshan; the Duke University provost chairs the Board. For the undergraduate degree program, DKU students receive two degrees: one from DKU certified by the MOE, and one from Duke accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). For graduate programs, students receive a Duke degree only. The chancellor of DKU is required to be a Chinese citizen and so far, he/she has always been a leader from Wuhan University.

Duke Kunshan University focuses a lot on research. Why was this choice made when designing the university?

Research is critical to tackling world challenges and providing exceptional experiences for students. It is also important to attract both students and faculty and be successful in China. We wanted to build research in areas that are the strengths of Duke and/or WHU, and in areas where DKU can build new strength by collaborating with Duke and WHU. In fact, building a liberal arts university with research integrated strategically from the outset itself is an innovation. 

Duke Kunshan University made a strategic decision to be interdisciplinary. What were some of the challenges you encountered when introducing such a model in China?

Duke has been very successful in promoting and conducting interdisciplinary research for decades. An important innovation for DKU is the design of a forward-looking curriculum that is interdisciplinary. I believe this design is quite successful as demonstrated by the success of the students. We did a very good job communicating and articulating our vision of why 21st century challenges demand a new model of education. There are many good examples in the arena of health, energy, environment, and AI/ML, in which it is not difficult to explain why interdisciplinary education and research are highly important and desirable.

A core element of the University is creating global-minded citizens. Why did you make that choice?

Again, addressing grand challenges with the backdrop of global conflicts and a globally connected economy requires people who have empathy, humility, and a mindset to understand and appreciate different perspectives, especially from those who live or are from different parts of the world with different histories and cultures. People need to work together to solve global challenges. The world is so connected, and Greece is a part of this connected world, and I am a true believer that each one of us can benefit from having an open and global mind.

DKU created a graduate program prior to the launch of the 4-year undergraduate program. Why did Duke take this strategic decision?

The Global Learning Semester (GLS) program was a test bed for the undergraduate degree program and for Duke faculty members to get to know students in China and beyond (most of the GLS students were from top Chinese universities), gain experiences from teaching in China, and for DKU to become better known at least within China. The GLS program also offered Duke undergraduate students the opportunity to have a semester abroad experience in China at DKU. The GLS program ended with the launch of the DKU undergraduate degree program in 2018. The courses offered in the GLS program were also interdisciplinary and more discussion-based, very different from typical courses offered at Chinese universities. The positive feedback from GLS students contributed to the initial success of DKU. While the initial interest in DKU came from the business school, later the Duke Global Health Institute also became engaged. Neither have undergraduate degree programs so starting with graduate programs seemed quite natural. Two programs were too small to launch, and shortly the Duke Medical Physics program became interested. So DKU started with three graduate programs: MS in Medical Physics, MS in Global Health, and Master of Management Studies. Today, there are five Duke graduate programs offered at DKU.

How did you adapt the Duke curriculum to the Chinese environment?

The DKU undergraduate degree program is completely new, and it was designed from the ground up. It took a Duke faculty committee with many members working over the course of several years to create, and I was on that original committee. The committee also visited universities inside and outside China and studied new universities such as Yale-NUS College and NYU-Shanghai. The curriculum went through many rounds of feedback and review processes internally at Duke, and through meetings and workshops including discussions and collaboration with WHU faculty. It took about four years. The DKU website has a good description of the curriculum. 

We agree that high quality education requires huge financial resources. How is DKU funded?

High-quality liberal arts colleges in US rely on their strong endowments, and tuition is only a fraction of their operating costs. For a new university, an additional challenge is its name recognition and getting people to invest their children’s future in a new global institution. Therefore, scholarships played an important role in the early days of the DKU undergraduate degree program to help attract students, especially international students. 

Do you think the current funding model is sustainable? 

The challenge is to make it financially sustainable. DKU has been funded mostly by the Kunshan Municipal People’s Government, tuition, a modest Duke contribution and philanthropy. The DKU tuition and cost of attendance for international students can be found online. The tuition for Chinese students is significantly lower, but still much higher than public universities in China. Thanks to the strong support of Kunshan Municipal People’s Government and many generous donors, a large portion of the first few classes of students received varying levels of scholarships towards tuition, including some who received full tuition awards. I talked about buildings and facilities earlier, and they are covered by the Kunshan Municipal People’s Government. They also provide modest research start-up support which helped a lot to recruit DKU faculty members. DKU faculty members are becoming more and more competitive for funding from various government funding sources in China. 

How did you manage to attract professors who had no connection to China?

DKU has been quite successful in recruiting faculty internationally. The vision for DKU and its innovations in global higher education, interdisciplinary research centers, and curriculum help attract adventurous talent who share such a vision. The vibrant and dynamic nature of China also helped attract talented faculty and researchers, especially those interested in China studies and the opportunity that China offers to address global challenges. DKU faculty members compete for Chinese government research funding opportunities in the same way as those from Chinese public universities. The promotion and tenure review process follows closely that of Duke, and Duke and WHU faculty have played an important role in such processes. Duke played a critical role in designing a cohort faculty hiring process that involved bringing prospective faculty candidates to visit Duke University and DKU in groups during the interview process. Such a process also helped new faculty cohorts to bond. The faculty onboarding process has been intentional, thoughtful, and well-designed including language and culture orientation. DKU, as a liberal arts college, requires faculty to teach more than Duke faculty members, and relatively modest start-up support presents some challenges to recruit those who are more research inclined. While Kunshan is only about 15-minute high-speed train ride from Shanghai and near Suzhou city, it is a county-level city in China. For faculty with school age children, it can be a challenge for their children to enroll in international schools in Shanghai.

China has a large local population that the Duke Kunshan University could serve. Were local students the focus of the University or did you also aim to recruit students from other countries?

From Day 1, DKU has been recruiting internationally. The first cohort, the Class of 2022, had students from about 40 countries. DKU is highly competitive as each class is small. For the class of 2028, there are in total 5213 applications from greater China: Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, and the total number of international applications is 4705 from 123 countries, with 50% from the U.S. For the incoming class (Class of 2028), the total number of students will be 500 with 350 from Mainland China.  

The value proposition for all students is global innovative liberal arts education that is integrated with research, highly interdisciplinary, forward-looking, and focused on global challenges. Students can spend one semester at Duke during their junior year, so they have the exposure to the two largest economies in the world. They are highly competitive and highly sought after post graduation as shown by the data from the Class of 2022 and Class of 2023. They have degrees from DKU and Duke. 

The first graduates graduated in 2022. What is their path?

234 students graduated in May 2022. 96% of all students have confirmed post-graduate plans within six months after graduation. Over 80% of the Chinese students were admitted to U.S. top ten/Ivy League universities. 23 students were accepted for doctoral studies by respective world-renowned institutions.

Ege Kaan Duman, Class of 2022, named DKU's first Rhodes Scholar. Duke Kunshan University senior 

Wanying He, Class of 2022, named DKU's first Schwarzman Scholar.

What are the current challenges that DKU faces to survive in a dynamically changing academic environment? 

The next 10-15 years will be critically important for DKU to solidify its success and its culture. The challenge will be continuing to attract students worldwide with the same start-up spirit as the classes of 2022 and 2023 while the university matures. This challenge applies to the DKU faculty and staff as well. 

At closing, what are the key lessons from your experience that you can share as Greece goes through this transition to introduce foreign universities in the country?

This is a difficult question. China has a rich history of more than 100 years of having foreign people and institutions come and help build universities. This is very different from Greece. The most prestigious medical school in China, Peking Union Medical College is one such example. Another example is Tongji University, where my sister received her undergraduate Engineering degree.