By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- Duke University is expected to announce early next year plans for a significant university presence in China.

"China is by many accounts the most dynamic economy in the world today," said Mike Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs. "It's a nation that will have a tremendous impact on what happens in the world, and as a global educational institution, Duke wants to be a part of the transformation of that society. Duke also wants to provide experience in that nation for its students."

The university's Board of Trustees earlier this month heard a report on a proposal for an initial Fuqua School of Business complex in the Chinese city of Kunshan. According to the proposal, the site, which would include a conference center, an academic building, faculty housing, student dormitories and a research incubator facility, would be ready for occupancy in 2011.

Duke would provide "the majority of its programs in Kunshan" according to the proposal and would "work to complete a planning process for the rest of Duke to consider the nature of a more extended campus."

The university, which would offer at the Kunshan campus masters degrees in management studies, would have control over academic programs, faculty selection and admissions.

An agreement to proceed with the proposal could be signed sometime next month, Duke officials said.

The agreement would be the culmination, Schoenfeld pointed out, "of a fairly lengthy planning process for developing strategic relationships with China. The board has talked about this quite a bit for the last couple of years."

A city of around 650,000 people, Kunshan is west of Shanghai. For the Duke project, it would provide 200 acres and offer, at minimum, a 20-year free lease on the property. It also would provide financial support to get the facilities started, according to the proposal.

"This project would be significantly funded by our partners," Schoenfeld said. "Duke's direct investment in this particular venture will be very limited."

The university, suffering from a decline in major gifts and having taken a hard hit to its endowment during the economic crunch of the last two years, is trying to cut $125 million from its budget "and we have to take economic circumstances into consideration" when looking at the China proposal, Schoenfeld said.

The proposal also envisions a partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of China's top schools, and a possible complementary Duke site in the city of Shanghai. If successful, the initial phase could lead to additional Duke programs at the site, including global health, public policy, and masters in engineering and environmental science.