The Fuqua School of Business, in a reversal of its international strategy, is scaling back its European campus while adding two new partnerships in Asia.
Fuqua will cut a significant portion of its offices--but not classrooms--at its campus in Frankfurt, due to lagging interest among European students.
"We feel like it's extremely expensive to have office space there," said Doug Breeden, dean of the business school. "We can't see a big payoff in developing a physical presence in Europe, so some of our people are coming back.... They'll continue to fly over, but we'll have less of a physical presence."
The Frankfurt campus was founded in 1999 with high hopes to provide a home to the Cross-Continent MBA program, an 18-month program in which students study at both Frankfurt and Duke. The Fuqua satellite campus is part of a hotel located near the airport in Frankfurt.
Breeden said that although the cross-continent program has attracted many American business students, the school has had a harder time recruiting Europeans.
Donna Spinella, assistant dean and director of the cross-continent program, said the disparity can be attributed to the school's lower name recognition in Europe.
She added that the Frankfurt classroom facilities are designed to mimic the Durham campus' environment. But because the Frankfurt campus is in a hotel, the presence of hotel guests alters this atmosphere, she said.
Provost Peter Lange declined to comment on the cutbacks or any possible reductions at the Frankfurt campus. Gil Merkx, who arrived last July to become vice provost for international affairs, said Duke's strategic shift is the wave of the future.
"In a globalized age where communication is instantaneous and travel is easy, a physical presence is much less important than the opportunity to operate internationally," he said. "If you have a partner abroad, you don't have to use your own building."
Robert Ashton, dean of Fuqua Europe, could also not be reached for comment.
Breeden said a recent trip to five Asian cities, however, has yielded partnerships with Seoul National University in South Korea and Peking University in China. He said these new international efforts represent a shift in Fuqua's international strategy. "This strategy makes a lot of sense," he said. "Alliances with major universities are more effective than what we can do by ourselves."
Breeden said that although there are few details in the initial partnerships, they will exchange students and facilitate faculty research with the Asian universities.
Fuqua plans to send teachers to instruct courses at Peking's Guanghua School of Management, and students in those classes can have those courses accredited by American institutions.
Fuqua plans a similar agreement with Seoul National, whose dean, Dong-Sung Cho, met Breeden when they both studied at Harvard Business School.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.