From Duke to DKU: A personal perspective

Where it all started

In March 2018, I took a spring break course taught by Noah Pickus, dean of undergraduate curricula affairs and faculty development at Duke Kunshan University, called ‘College, Made in China?’ In this course, we interviewed chancellors and students from existing liberal arts colleges in Asia, such as Yale-NUS and NYU Shanghai. We also talked to Duke law professor Lawrence Zelenak, who rejected DKU as a risky money venture, and Duke Provost Sally Kornbluth, who endorsed the construction of DKU. Our main objective was to learn from the mistakes and problems of existing institutions, reflect on the meaning of liberal arts education, and try to better incorporate these ideas for DKU. We discussed about freedom of speech, community and diversity and the significance of liberal arts education for China.

However, what I learned last year about DKU was all theoretical. I had not been on the DKU campus to witness its development. This January, when I saw a poster advertising for another spring break program called ‘Documenting the DKU Experience,’ I immediately finished my application because I wanted to be more involved. Additionally, being away from my home country since May 2018, I yearned for authentic Chinese food.

The trip from Durham to Shanghai was tortuous: Our airplane attempted to land twice in Dallas because of the 22mph wind; the flight to Shanghai was delayed by two hours, luckily and unluckily; our baggage was in San Francisco when we arrived at Shanghai on Sunday, and we only got the bags Monday night. But finally, here we are.

Documenting as outsiders

During the five days at DKU, our 10-person group split into three subgroups. I mainly worked with Sophia and Eva on interviewing DKU students. Our project went through two phases. At first, we conducted eight interviews with a camera. After realizing the difficulty of letting the interviewees speak with ease and editing footage and B-roll, we decided to make a podcast because of its casual style and lower barrier to entry. It was named ‘Hotpot’ by Eva, as it stands for a fusion of diverse objects.

Besides conducting interviews, we also got involved in DKU’s campus life. For example, we visited a class for the mandatory ‘China in the World’ course and a 400-level Chinese class designed for international students. Also, thanks to Bill and all the members of the Dancing Club who put together a ‘dance practice’ just for us, we got to watch and film their K-pop performance. During our downtime, our team went with DKU students to karaoke, visited art exhibition and toured places of interests in Shanghai.

Now, back to our main objective, which is to document the DKU experience from an outsider’s view. It seems like when you have been part of something for a while, you become too used to it. Just like how I always forget the beauty of Duke’s Gothic architecture until I leave the campus. Therefore, it is great and necessary to reflect on our own experience like an observer. After some interviews, students thanked us for asking the questions because they also learned a lot from reflecting on their experience and restructuring their perspectives.

For us, the outsiders, it was such a precious opportunity to learn about the people at DKU. At Duke, I wouldn’t simply say ‘Hi” to a stranger and ask about their experience, feelings or thoughts. But here, I had a perfect excuse to simply add someone on WeChat and schedule an interview or a casual in-person meeting with them. I’m grateful that they were really cooperative despite being in the first week of the academic session. Everyone was responsive and willing to share their thoughts and feelings with us. Here, I would like to share what I learned from our conversations and my own observations.

The first person to eat crab

Being in the first undergraduate class, they are all pioneers who take risks and embrace uncertainty. Some forwent offers from their dream school, and some came to China for the first time. All students there have gone through a self-selective process to end up being in the first class. They wouldn’t be there without much courage and support from their family. Although many people might think they are the ‘guinea pigs’ of DKU, their roles are far beyond that.

Undeniably, they are active participants of the education innovation. They work with Student Affairs and give timely feedback to professors. They have started dozens of clubs and helped organize plenty of extracurricular activities (such as cultural trips and community services). There will also soon be a Student Government so that students can let more voices be heard. In terms of academics, professors also work closely with students to refine their curriculum. Peer-tutoring, as I heard, will also be in place from next year. It’s hard for me to imagine how much effort it takes to establish a massive institution like a university, and it is surprising to see how much the faculty, staff and students have achieved.

Now, DKU is accepting students for its Class of 2023, and everyone knows things are going to get better and better. But without the pioneer class and the faculty and staff, there would not be anything. So, these people deserve a big shout-out. They are, according to a Chinese phrase, ‘The first person to eat crab.’ This phrase works perfectly for DKU because the lake nearby is the most famous in China for producing crab.

Thoughts on diversity

With around 260 students, DKU has a close and diverse community. Everyone knows almost everyone. At Duke, which has seven times the number of students, it is not hard to see cliques with people from similar cultural backgrounds. At DKU, it is not as cliquey, according to someone from the interview. However, with such a diverse group of students coming from 27 different countries, there is inevitably some degree of separation due to the cultural difference. Interestingly, international students get along with one another coming from different culture and backgrounds, while a gap remains between international students and Chinese students.

It is always fascinating for me to inspect the social interactions among groups. When I transitioned from China to the United States four years ago, I became part of the minority. For many international students at DKU, they also switched from majority to minority. It seems like there is some kind of magical, cohesive power that connects minorities together. From what I heard and observed, it is the case in DKU. And at Duke, although I don’t intentionally separate myself from others, many of my close friends are minorities, such as Asian Americans and other international students. Reflecting on Thomas Schelling’s model of segregation, I think perhaps complete integration is unobtainable, but what we need might simply be more cultural understanding for each other.

But no matter what, we always need students from each side to take the initiative to interact with others from different countries and backgrounds. This is happening at DKU now, and we even heard stories of Chinese students inviting their international friends home for Chinese New Year. Staff and students organize two cultural trips per academic session to facilitate interaction and communication among students. We all look forward to seeing more initiatives like these.

Thoughts on education innovation

Although DKU promotes its innovative curriculum, quite a few students there complained about it. Their academic year is composed of four sessions, each lasting seven weeks. Many students reported that the workload was heavy and the pace extremely fast. Also, a few students said some courses, such as ‘English for Academic Purposes,’ may not be necessary as the English-language skills among Chinese students is at different levels. Some students have prepared for TOEFL and planned to study abroad, while others happened to learn about DKU while preparing for China’s national college entrance examination. Thus, those who are well-prepared in language skills don’t learn a lot from EAP classes. Some students suggested dividing classes into different levels to facilitate personalized learning, but as it’s the first class, the school found this hard to implement.

Under such a curriculum, academic pressure seems common. Ironically, in China, many parents might think this is a good sign. Well, maybe not that good. This is because many students are told that when they are done with the college entrance exam they will be ‘liberated.’ At least I was, and so were most of my friends. Many traditional Chinese universities are known to have loose academic requirements for graduation (more than 90 percent of students graduate in four years), which is a problem in Chinese higher education. From my understanding, this might cause a polarized situation. Some students who have strong self-discipline might continue working extremely hard like in high school, or they might choose to have a chill lifestyle. At DKU, students aspire to not only excel in academics but also find the balance between academics and extracurricular, which is great.

Inevitably, overachievers are everywhere, and this in turn creates peer pressure and the illusion of ‘effortless perfection’ for others. For some Chinese students, the college entrance exam has trained them to study hard under tremendous pressure, but the potential downside is that they might overlook the importance of extracurricular and co-curricular, thus are less willing to sacrifice their time on things other than academics. Therefore, when students transition from Chinese high school to DKU, it is imperative to redefine a model student and the meaning of education.

In terms of the education model, I think the core question for DKU is this: What does it mean to be a liberal arts college in 21st-century China? Without the restrictions from traditional liberal arts colleges, DKU has experimental ground in China. The 21st century is an exciting time in education innovation, with all kinds of new technologies and pedagogies, such as project-based learning, blended learning, immersive learning (with AR/VR/MR) and personalized learning (with AI), and I wish to see DKU adopt these concepts to promote interdisciplinary education in the near future.

Cultivating rooted globalism

Personally, it was interesting to see people from all around the world come to China to study. In a 400-level Chinese class I visited, there were students from Italy, South Korea, Pakistan and other countries, all of whom had taken Chinese before. That was quite surprising and inspiring to me. Overall, I was extremely happy to see how China has shaped a positive image to the rest of the world and attracted more young people to study Chinese.

Being in a diverse community, DKU students from different cultural backgrounds enrich each other’s understanding about different cultures and the relationships between each other’s cultures. Through active engagement in cultural communications, they help each other become a global citizen. This corresponds to one of the core values of DKU ‘ rooted globalism, meaning ‘to cultivate informed and engaged citizens who are knowledgeable about each other’s histories, traditions of thought and affiliations, and skilled in navigating local, national, and global identities and commitments.’

Education in China is undergoing drastic reform, and institutions such as DKU are acting as the catalysts. I am optimistic about the future of DKU and the future of education in China. To prepare for the social change in the next couple decades, we need more interdisciplinary leaders from these innovative universities.

Vincent Liu is a computer science major in Duke University’s Class of 2021. He visited the Duke Kunshan campus from March 11 to 16, 2019. This article was originally posted on his blog.

If you are a journalist looking for information about the University or for an expert to interview for a story, our team can help.

Media Contact

Senior Editor/Writer

Gareth McPherson

Email: gareth.mcpherson@dukekunshan.edu.cn

Add our
WeChat