Business program offers US-China degree to attract more international students

More international students will have the chance to study firsthand the dynamics between China and the US in a graduate program offered by Duke’s Fuqua School of Business at Duke Kunshan University, a leading joint-venture university in China.

As the tensions over trade continue to escalate between the two countries, the Master of Management Studies: Duke Kunshan University program (MMS: Duke Kunshan), delivered at Duke University’s campus in the US and Duke Kunshan campus in China, hopes to recruit more international students.

“At a time such as this, it is particularly important for students to appreciate differences between the US and China, to be able to work with these differences, and to facilitate a deeper understanding between the two countries,” said Jeremy Petranka, assistant dean of Master of Management Studies and Master of Quantitative Studies Management at the Fuqua School of Business.

He said that what makes this program special is its two-campus setup, which allows students to immerse themselves in the world’s two largest economies and experience firsthand the dynamics between them.

From July to December, students of the 10-month MMS: Duke Kunshan program will study at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in North Carolina in the US. The following January they will move to the Duke Kunshan campus just outside Shanghai, eastern China’s economic center, and then graduate in May with a Duke University degree.

This program structure provides students with global business learning and cultural immersion in both nations, giving them a great competitive edge after they graduate and enter the business world.

The program caters to recent graduates with less than two years’ work experience. Students from all cultural and academic backgrounds are welcome to apply.

The curriculum includes 15 core courses in key business topics including finance, accounting, marketing, strategy, operations and more, combined with experiential learning activities in both countries.

The courses are taught by Fuqua’s world-class faculty and train students to apply their newly acquired business skills and acumen to real-life situations.

The effort to recruit more international students highlights the program’s confidence in the future of joint-venture education between China and the US.

Currently, the program attracts students from seven to eight countries each year, with international students making up 30-35 percent of the total class size. The program provides generous scholarships for international students, as well as free Chinese classes for those interested in learning the language.

On successful completion of the program, students receive a Master of Management Studies degree from Duke University, and become a part of Duke University’s and Fuqua’s global alumni networks and Duke Kunshan’s growing network in China.

China has recently relaxed restrictions on work visas for international graduates. A degree from Duke University in the US and an in-depth experience of China offers students greater opportunities for employment in the world’s second-largest economy.

“With the support of the Career Management Center and alumni networks, we’ve seen very strong career statistics from the last few graduate classes,” Jeremy Petranka said, noting that graduates have been recruited by global companies in various industries, such as McKinsey, Deloitte, J.P. Morgan, Citi, Didi and Huawei.

Duke Kunshan University, located an hour’s ride away from Shanghai in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta region, China's major economic hub, is a collaborative venture between Duke University, Wuhan University in China and the city of Kunshan.

In China there are nine such universities that are joint-ventures between Chinese and overseas institutions. Duke University is the only one among the top 10 universities in the US that has established such an institution in China.