By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- After two years of planning, Duke University officially committed Friday to a significant university presence in China, including a campus initially for the Fuqua School of Business in the Chinese city of Kunshan.

Construction on the 220-acre campus, featuring classroom and meeting space, faculty offices, conference center space, an incubator building offering laboratory space, faculty offices and lodging for students, faculty and staff, will begin immediately and is expected to be complete in 2011.

At a groundbreaking ceremony Friday in the city west of Shanghai. Duke President Richard Brodhead said the facility would create great learning opportunities for Duke students.

"We look forward to ... supporting education and business development in this most dynamic region of China," Brodhead said, calling the school's agreement with its Chinese partners "a new model of international educational collaboration."

The Fuqua complex will focus on executive MBA and non-degree executive education programs, a pre-experience management training master's degree, training of Ph.D. students and the recruitment of top faculty. Duke's educational partner in the venture is Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a leading Chinese university.

The Fuqua campus is, however, only the precursor of several Duke iniatives in China.

Future activity on the Kunshan campus will include programs from Duke's schools of public policy and environment, and its global health institute, among others, as education and research opportunities are developed.

Brodhead, Provost Peter Lange and Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard also formalized an agreement between Fuqua and Shanghai Jiao Tong's Antai College of Economics and Management. The schools will partner to train Ph.D. students and seek to develop executive MBA and Master of Management Studies programs based in China.

"The very thorough planning process [has] engaged a number of Duke schools, departments and programs over the last two years," said Mike Schoenfeld, the university's vice president for public affairs and government relations. "It puts Duke at the forefront of universities seeking to enhance their global position."

Duke already operates a number of collaborative programs with Chinese institutions in medicine, global health, law and international development.

"China is by many accounts the most dynamic economy in the world today," said Schoenfeld. "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."

The Kunshan project will be significantly funded by the university's partners. "Duke's direct investment in this particular venture will be very limited," Schoenfeld said.