The process of reaccreditation is coming to a close, but the process of transforming Duke into a global institution is far from over.
A team of on-site reviewers was on campus Monday through Wednesday on behalf of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for the final step in the University's reaccreditation, which occurs every 10 years. In addition to discussing 10 areas in which the external review committee had found the University to be noncompliant, the team reviewed the Quality Enhancement Plan-another example of Duke going global.
Administrators cannot say whether or not the University has been reaccredited until the official report is released in two to three weeks, but Judith Ruderman, vice provost for academic and administrative services, said she was pleased with the visit.
"Now we are in the process of implementing," Ruderman said. "I am expressing relief that it was a good review team and that they have gone home, because we are all exhausted and so are they."
Ruderman said the reviewers have yet to make suggestions for the QEP, titled "Global Duke: Enhancing Students' Capacity for World Citizenship." She added that they gave positive preliminary feedback for the plan and its three components-the Global Semester Abroad, a Winter Forum and a Global Advising Program.
But the University will have to spend money in tough financial times as it globalizes.
Among projects called for in the QEP, Duke would have to pay a speaker for the Winter Forum, hire three advisers for the Global Advising Program and set up sites for the Global Semester Abroad. For the Global Semester Abroad, the University would primarily be spending money to develop academic programs, not necessarily building campuses or hiring professors, said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations.
Duke will proceed with its goals and "give this our best shot," albeit with caution, Ruderman said. She noted that for QEP components in particular, the University only has an obligation to pursue its plans for five years and does not have to continue if they prove unaffordable or ineffective.
She added that planning has begun for QEP programs, but the University may delay or scale back the implementation as financial circumstances change. The University also hopes some private donors will emerge in order to support programs such as speakers on campus, Ruderman said.
Although the QEP's components will provide students additional opportunities to travel abroad and study global issues, Provost Peter Lange said the plan is not a sign that the University's mission is shifting abroad-Duke has been eyeing the globe for years.
"I was the first vice provost for international affairs in the mid 1990s-this is a 15 year-plus process," he said. He explained that the difference is that Duke's strategy is now "to substantially increase the degree to which we extend the University into international settings rather than treating the University as a magnet."
Lange said the globalization efforts of the QEP build upon previous efforts to expand the University's international reach, citing DukeEngage and the overseas sites of professional schools as other recent examples of internationalization efforts. This spike in global projects reflects how education is changing, said Prasad Kasibhatla, co-chair of the QEP committee and associate dean for international programs at the Nicholas School of the Environment.
"I think that the fact that [internationalization is] receiving a lot of attention is a natural outcome of a couple of things," he said. "We're seeing more and more that the world is pretty interconnected. I think Duke is not unique in focusing on internationalization, but I think it's a natural consequence of our world today."
But the economic downturn is also a fixture of the times-yet another example of globalization at work. Lange said that although the University's goals are "pretty ambitious," the recession will not significantly change the University's globalization plans.
"I think we're being careful in initiatives we undertake and judicious in calculating costs and benefits and risks, probably more so than nine months ago, but we're definitely not changing the basic direction that we're moving," Lange said. "And where opportunities look ripe, we will continue to move forward with them."
Lange said he does not expect the importance of globalization and its implications for education, which he said has been growing for a decade, to decrease due to the recession.
These expansions also will not come at the cost of the quality of a domestic Duke education, Paula McClain, outgoing chair of the Academic Council and professor of political science, wrote in an e-mail.
"Faculty are concerned about the effects of the economic situation on the University's finances in general," she said. "Global programs are no more or less important than other programs that make up the totality of the intellectual and academic life of the University."
Ben Wildavsky, senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, said globalization is not a trend he expects to disappear, though it might be less popular during the recession.
"It strikes me that people should not be distracted by the short-term problems people are having," he said. "I think it's really hard to say whether this is a prudent time [to globalize]. Having said that, it strikes me that if you have the resources to do this as a long-term measure, that this would make some sense, because whatever happens in the next few years, the trendline isn't going away."
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