Education seen as answer to production slowdown

Duke University, cooperating with Wuhan University, is building a new campus in Kunshan. [Provided to China Daily]

Kunshan, where half of the world's laptop computers and 15 percent of digital cameras are made, faces a challenge: many electronics companies are moving to western China, so what to do? One of the richest cities in the country is looking to education as at least part of the answer.

Kunshan, which has a capita GDP of $24,000 and hosts more than 100,000 people from Taiwan, has become the choice for Duke University from the United States.

The university campus is being built on an 800,000-square-meter site in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, though it is still awaiting the approval from the Ministry of Education.

Guan Aiguo, Kunshan Party secretary, says the university will include three schools: healthcare; energy and environment; and finance.

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is the latest Western university to tap into the education market in China. Eleven months ago New York University announced that it would set up a degree-granting liberal arts campus in Shanghai, The New York Times reported.

China is now promoting the introduction of prime education resources to satisfy rapidly growing demand. A total of 114 Sino-foreign cooperative educational institutions or programs were approved last year, a report from the Ministry of Education issued on Dec 28 says.

Such jointly established education programs have become an important supplement to China's education, but their quality remains a big concern of the education authorities. More than 70 percent of the applications for Sino-foreign co-run programs from provinces and cities over the past year were rejected, the Ministry of Education says. The low quality of proposed foreign education and unreasonable agreements between the two sides were the main reasons for rejection, earlier China Daily reports have said.

Work on the Duke campus is well under way, with five buildings in progress and construction on the sixth and final building expected to start soon, says Laura Brinn, director of global communications of Duke University.

Lu Jun, mayor of Kunshan, said last month when meeting Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University, that construction would be completed this year, with the hope that student admissions could start in September next year.

Brinn says Duke made a strategic commitment to become an increasingly global university several years ago, both in the composition of the faculty in Durham, the student body, and academic offerings, and through programs and partnerships worldwide.

Duke's financial investment in Duke Kunshan University includes funds for the campus master plan, facilities design, construction oversight and specialty consulting. Duke also has shared responsibility with Kunshan for expenses related to planning and preparation for Duke Kunshan University, and for subsidizing campus operating costs over the first six years, including the preparation year.

The total commitment of Duke resources for master planning, design, construction oversight and specialty consulting is $8 million, and Duke plans to invest about $6 million a year for the first six years.

Brinn says the university's activities in China developed from discussions at The Fuqua School of Business, which embarked in 2008 on an ambitious plan to create a new model for global business education.

Acknowledging China's increasingly important role in global business, Fuqua began discussions with alumni, universities, corporations and government agencies to gain a better understanding of both China's needs and opportunities for Fuqua to engage in the country.

After numerous conversations and visits to China, it became clear to Fuqua and Duke leaders that Kunshan, which borders Shanghai, provides the strongest opportunity for the location of a campus, and the resources to support substantial engagement that would benefit both Duke and China, across a wide range of academic disciplines.

The Kunshan government asked Duke to help create a new university grounded in world-class methods of inquiry and teaching that would help China achieve its goals related to expansion and reform of higher education.

Kunshan's strategic location just outside Shanghai and the impressive growth and development apparent in Kunshan over the past 20 years were significant factors in the choice of Kunshan as a site for a new joint venture university campus.

Duke Kunshan University will be an independent joint venture of Duke University and Wuhan University, operating under the authority of the Chinese Ministry of Education. The university will be governed by a board whose seven members will be appointed by Duke University, Wuhan University, and Kunshan. All courses will be taught in English.