The approval of one business degree Thursday represented both a turning point and a scaled down version of what originally was proposed for the start of Duke Kunshan University, a campus under construction near Shanghai.
Duke’s Academic Council voted 44-8, with four professors abstaining, to approve a master’s of management studies degree to be offered by the university’s Fuqua School of Business. It would be a three-year pilot program that would be re-evaluated after a couple of years, and the students will spend part of their time studying in China and part of their time at the Durham campus. The degree program must still be endorsed by Duke’s Board of Trustees. China’s Ministry of Education is expected to sign off soon on Duke’s application to operate there.
