The Arts and Sciences Council has streamlined the process for approving new programs in Duke Kunshan University and other global ventures.
After two years of discussion, the council voted to approve updated mechanisms for creating or changing classes and programs in Duke’s global undergraduate curriculum. The new system of approving undergraduate programs is divided into three sections—course changes, program changes and global initiatives. Each of the approval pathways will be dealt with by the relevant council subcommittees.
Program proposals will then be presented to the council’s executive committee, depending on the program.
“The updates address the need to foster and create new and innovative undergraduate curricular initiatives, while at the same time ensuring best practices of faculty oversight,” said Chair Ruth Day, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience.
The updates also apply to proposed programs involving clusters of courses with restricted enrollment and programs involving travel or study outside the United States.
The new process is the executive committee’s response to numerous complaints about the existing system. Faculty and council members said they were unsure of when a proposal was needed and to which appropriate committee a proposal would have to be submitted for review, Day said.
This resolution is less cumbersome and time consuming than the previous system and will also ensure that programs are reviewed in a more timely manner. And the global executive committee, for example, will be responsible for strengthening language requirements and increasing oversight for abroad programs.
“We approved a resolution that was much needed to clarify a procedure that was essentially already in place but was murky,” Dean of Arts and Sciences Laurie Patton said. “This is a step forward for the council as Duke takes one in the global direction.”
In other business:
The council heard a summary of proposed undergraduate programs at DKU. They will be comprised of interdisciplinary clusters of courses from multiple departments, Provost Peter Lange said. The undergraduate curriculum will parallel Duke’s innovative initiatives, such as DukeImmerse.
Lange said it was critical that DKU implement flexible program planning in its undergraduate curricular initiatives. As opposed to maintaining the constraint of a 15-week semester with rigid class times that characterize Duke, administrators propose that DKU have seven-week half-semesters—totaling four half-semesters each academic year.
During these half-semesters, faculty members would have the option of either teaching double-time courses for seven weeks or a longer course spanning 14 weeks, he said, adding that this flexibility should provide time for professors to experiment with innovative teaching methods.
Lange noted that innovative methods of education are necessary to revolutionize the Chinese higher education system—a task impossible without the help of leading American institutions.
“The Chinese education system is hierarchical, and they are very good at that,” Lange said. “The Ministry of Education wants us to bring our model of the interactive classroom to China in order to broaden the scope of the material taught.”
Dr. Robert Kamei, vice dean of education at Duke University-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, presented to the council teaching innovations employed at Duke-NUS. Kamei discussed the institution’s coursework, presented through team-based learning, called TeamLEAD. This method allows enhanced learning and retention, imparting skills to solve real-life problems and work in teams.
In this method, students are responsible for learning the bulk of the material before class, using recorded lectures from the School of Medicine along with reading assignments from textbooks and medical journals, Kamei said. Once in class, he added, they are tested both individually and in small groups, where they work together to solve clinically-oriented questions.
“The best doctor is no longer one who learns by rote memorization,” Kamei said. “He or she must be able to adapt to a group setting and steer away from purely individualized education.”
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