Duke Kunshan welcomes its largest undergraduate class, up 25 percent from the previous year and doubling the size of its 2018 inaugural undergraduate class. The cohort includes about 350 Chinese students and 150 international students, a 50 percent increase from the previous year.
Duke Kunshan and Jiangsu’s Foreign Affairs Office co-host the Collegiate Immersion Bootcamp, bringing together 90 students and teachers from eight top U.S. universities for a weeklong cultural exchange in Jiangsu and Shanghai.
September 2024 – Duke Kunshan earns an overall five-star rating in the QS Stars rating system. The university also receives five-star ratings in five key categories: teaching, facilities, employability, academic development, and global engagement.
Delegations from Duke Kunshan, Wuhan University, and Kunshan City meet at Duke University for the DKU Board of Trustees fall meeting. The board approves increasing DKU’s annual incoming undergraduate class size to 550 students and authorizes DKU and its partners to begin formal discussions on the current operational and financial support agreement.
The first buildings of the Phase 2 construction project open. The expansion more than doubles the campus footprint and represents a key milestone in Duke Kunshan’s development as a world-class educational and research institution.
Duke Kunshan celebrates the graduation of its inaugural undergraduate class. Of the 234 graduates, 82 percent pursue graduate studies at top universities, 15 percent enter the workforce, and others engage in volunteering and entrepreneurship. Six students earn prestigious scholarships, including Rhodes, Schwarzman, Yenching, the U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and Erasmus Mundus.
Duke Kunshan teams up with Duke-NUS Medical School to offer the Duke Kunshan–Duke-NUS Medicine Pathway for students, training them to become the next generation of doctors, policymakers, and researchers.
Duke Kunshan and its ongoing development are included in the “Overall Plan for the Construction of Hongqiao International Open Hub” and the “14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of Jiangsu Province and Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035.”
Working with Duke University, Duke Kunshan becomes one of the world’s first universities to transition its courses online—achieving this in just three weeks in response to COVID-19.
April/May – The inaugural class in the international master of environmental policy (iMEP) program graduates at ceremonies held in Kunshan and Durham, North Carolina.
A groundbreaking ceremony is held to launch phase two construction of the campus. In attendance are senior representatives from Duke University, Wuhan University, Suzhou and Kunshan. The Innovation Building also officially opens, marking the end of phase one construction.
Duke Kunshan welcomes its inaugural undergraduate class of 262 students. The university also launches a master of engineering in electrical and computer engineering.
The university launches the Regional Ozone Sino-U.S. Collaborative Research Center with the government of Jiangsu province, which administers Kunshan, as well as the PRCEE-Duke Kunshan Joint Laboratory on Quantitative Environmental Policy Analysis in partnership with the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy.
Duke Kunshan welcomes its first students in the MMS, M.Sc. in global health and M.Sc. in medical physics programs, as well as students taking part in the undergraduate Global Learning Semester program.
Duke University and Wuhan University sign a statement on cooperation principles, establishing Duke Kunshan as a joint-venture between the two institutions.
Duke University signs a cooperation agreement with the Kunshan government to establish Duke Kunshan University. A groundbreaking ceremony is held at the site of the new campus, attended by the then-president of Duke University and the leader of Kunshan.