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DUKE To Push Internationalization (Chronicle)
| Lascivious vermilion stag film skinny woman | 07/09/08 |
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Date: July 9th, 2008 6:54 PM Author: Lascivious vermilion stag film skinny woman Subject: 'A concrete plan for putting Duke's name in foreign soil." Welcoming internationalization
By: Posted: 7/8/08 Duke has long prided itself on a terrific national reputation fueled by its young, forward-thinking identity. Pioneering an international initiative fits well with Duke's image of an adaptive institution and presents an opportunity to set Duke apart from its older and richer peers.
Duke cannot match Ivy League schools' centuries-long history and lags far behind in its endowment, but international expansion is one area in which Duke can become a leader.
New international initiatives level the playing field and broaden Duke's appeal. Duke has made it a recent priority to carve out a niche on the academic map by expanding civic engagement with DukeEngage, amplifying financial aid and seeking international partners in healthcare.
It is heartening, then, to see a concrete plan for putting Duke's name in foreign soil taking shape.
Building Duke's name-recognition with these campus colonies can only supplement the University's commitment to attracting the best students and faculty worldwide.
The undergraduate abroad experience, in which more than 40 percent of students take part, has already contributed to making Duke students culturally aware.
This graduate-student-minded initiative presents a significant investment, both financially and in building Duke's international prominence, but Duke would hopefully see significant returns in increased selectivity and prestige.
Naturally, the project is still only a proposal, and many concerns about the initiative's success need to be addressed. It will be important that Duke learns from previous failures in creating similar satellite campuses and succeed where Yale and NYU did not.
Moreover, Duke has its own failures to learn from: It has been nearly a decade since the University announced it would launch the Fuqua School of Business Europe in Frankfurt, and five years since Fuqua began scaling back resources and dropping facilities after lackluster interest.
It is likely that undergraduates will not know the effects of these outposts, so the initiative should purpose itself to balance priorities to undergraduates and graduate students alike. But even if the benefits are not immediately clear, Duke's display of an international consciousness promises certain benefits to the Durham campus.
It is foreign and perhaps uncomfortable to consider that a Duke degree could be conferred to someone who has never set foot in Durham. These campuses, though, could facilitate tapping resources Duke does not offer currently, deepening the educational experience for Duke students everywhere. The world is a lot smaller than it used to be. For a modern university, that prompts finding new opportunities to increase cultural literacy and effectively communicating in an international sphere. Establishing these hubs of academia in foreign countries accomplishes both prerequisites to success in a shrinking international sphere.
Moreover, Duke should strive to continue to be on the cutting edge of international affairs. Pathbreaking is certainly never easy, and to continue to compete as peer institutions follow suit will be critical to expanding a solid reputation to the rest of the world. |