8.3: International Partnerships and Programs

Build and enhance international partnerships and programs

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The end of the Cold War, the acceleration of globalization, and the pervasiveness of the internet have fundamentally altered the scope of universities' responsibilities, opportunities and challenges throughout the world. No longer can we prepare our students as if they are likely to pursue careers based in the United States, without much international contact or experience, and with little contact with colleagues from other nations and cultures. No longer can it be assumed that the best research will be done in the United States and Europe and by scholars and researchers trained within our institutions. No longer is it the case that problems to which we apply our knowledge will be remote to our own concerns or that the solutions will be sought and sponsored primarily through governmental policies. These changes have profound implications for the international strategy of the University with respect to its students, faculty and international reputation and presence. For students, preparation for the world requires substantial opportunities for cross-cultural encounters and the development of skills to navigate cultural interactions if they are to become citizens and professionals in an interdependent society. Five years ago, we introduced strategies to strengthen the international dimensions of a Duke education through increasing the percentage of international students on campus, developing interdisciplinary foreign language and area centers, enhancing study abroad opportunities, and developing educational partnerships with foreign institutions. These commitments have driven major progress during this period. International representation in the undergraduate incoming class grew from 1.5% in 1992 to 7% in the fall 2006 (the COHFE average is 6%). Graduate enrollments are now 35% international, on par with the national average, and there is significant representation of international students in our professional schools (e.g., Engineering 54%, Fuqua 34%, and Law 20%). In the 2003 and 2006 competitions for Federal Title VI awards, Duke was successful on six applications, more than were awarded to any of our peer institutions. The Duke liberal arts curriculum now requires that undergraduates to study a language and take courses in cross-cultural inquiry. Duke leads its peers in the percentage of undergraduate students that participate in study-abroad. While we have made important strides forward, Duke's international reputation does not yet match its reputation in the United States nor reflect the quality of its teaching and research programs. If we are to meet our ambitious goals in research, teaching and service, this gap must be aggressively closed and Duke will follow three broad strategies. Duke will work to attract the best faculty from around the world, both to enhance our teaching and research missions and to strengthen Duke's ability to be of service to the world. Our efforts to recruit foreign faculty must be fully commensurate with our commitment to recruit the finest researchers and teachers regardless of national origin. Duke will work to attract the best international students - undergraduate, graduate, and professional - regardless of their ability to pay. This will require a commitment to increase the amount of financial aid funding available for foreign students. As we continue to grow the number of international students on campus - and to expand the financial aid to support more of them, regardless of need - we must increase the degree to which we support them through campus programs and take full advantage of our increasingly diverse student body through campus curricular and co-curricular programming. At the same time, we will increase opportunities for Duke undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to have foreign experiences. Exposure to other cultures is not the same as development of true knowledge and real cross-cultural understanding. Many of our students do not venture out of their cultural comfort zones, studying abroad in places that are linguistically, economically, and culturally only modestly challenging. Accordingly, we will encourage study abroad in developing countries and to more fully prepare our students to take the best advantage of their overseas study experience and to foster greater and deeper engagements with fellow students and faculty upon return, we will seek to better integrate course work and study abroad. Finally, we will seek new and innovative ways to bring our knowledge and experiences into foreign settings through strategic and beneficial partnerships. We will build on successful models such as Duke Corporate Education. This program was developed through the Fuqua School of Business, is ranked first in the world in providing on-site training to corporations world-wide, and has established collaborations with the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the London School of Economics. Other successful models include the Duke Center for International Development, a leader in professional outreach and training to enhance world development; and the DukeMedicine partnership with the government of Singapore to establish a Medical School based on our medical education model. We are currently exploring establishing a public policy institute in India, a partnership between Fuqua and the Institute for Economy in Transition to develop an MBA program at the National Academy for the Economy in Moscow, and a collaboration between the School of Nursing and the Modi Institute of Education in India to oversee its curriculum. We will also pursue international collaborations focused on environmental issues. To reach these internationalization goals will require that we rethink how best to organize our internationalization efforts. Much of our progress in the last decade has been accomplished by decentralized entrepreneurial activities by faculty and schools, sometimes encouraged by the infusion of central initiative and financial support from the Vice Provost for International Affairs. Future strategic initiatives, however, especially in the areas of international service and institutional building, will require greater coordination and targeted strategic and entrepreneurial effort. How best to organize ourselves to assure continued entrepreneurial initiatives on the part of our schools and institutes while increasing our capability for more centrally coordinated strategic undertakings is a major administrative challenge.

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