We're here to learn, Duke vice-president says

Swooping in with the idea that ‘we know what the answers are' is not how Duke University wants to run its Dubai and other international campuses.

During a recent visit to Dubai, Dr Greg Jones, Duke University Vice President and Provost for Global Strategy and Programmes spoke to Gulf News about the university's strategy in the region.

What's distinctive about Duke's global strategy is not about just establishing a branch campus to say they are "international" says Jones.

Jones said Duke is eager to have representation in key regions of the world over the next ten years, but wants to be a genuine international institution and not just have a branch model where everything has to go through the campus in North Carolina in the US.

Duke wants a presence in multiple regions of the world where campuses interact with each other independently of what happens in the US "so it's important for us that Dubai, Delhi and Shanghai interact with each other as we are connected to them in Durham, North Carolina".

This, he said, was already in place with the global executive MBA programme where students spend time in Dubai and then go to Delhi to complete another segment of the programme. "Being embedded and connected is going to become crucial in the 21st century."

Established in Dubai in late April 2009, Duke is still in a development phase. Jones said the university is expanding its programmes and a new pre-experience masters in management studies is in the pipeline. "What we've seen and heard here and everywhere in the world is a significant need for pre-experience in finance, accounting and leadership because when students come out of undergraduate study there is a gap in learning.

The Arab context

Being better able to understand and contribute to the UAE is an important part of Duke's strategy because of the role the Arab influence plays in global economy. "We've discovered in all our relationships that we have that we have to go in and humbly learn and not think ‘we know what the answers are and we know how to provide the best education that you really need to have'. We are here to learn what the needs, hopes, gaps and opportunities are and where we can be of help."

Jones commented that several American and European universities are going global and that everyone wants to be international, but people are not clear about what the course is and what the finish line looks like.

The resulting trend, and during the economic downturn, is that lots of universities are doing things to try to make money, to generate tuition revenue or to attract more students. The danger, Jones said, is that universities are chasing the money and tapping into markets that haven't been explored before, which leads to compromises on quality.

The other risk is a neo-colonialism particularly with American and Eur-opean universities that go to other countries to establish campuses with the "we know best" perspective. "I'm more clear about how our international partnerships will make us see how faulty and broken our own education is than thinking we have some magic potion that can fix other people's problems."