At home with liberal arts

A view of Duke Kunshan University, jointly set up by Duke University, Wuhan University and the city of Kunshan, in 2013. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Duke Kunshan University in Jiangsu province, will launch its undergraduate degree courses in 2018, Zhang Zefeng reports.

Tian Hongrui leads a busy life at Duke Kunshan University in East China's Jiangsu province, where he attends the interdisciplinary non-degree program called the "global learning" semester.

He takes courses on social sciences, writing and art with a dozen students from different countries and interacts closely with teachers both from China and the United States.

In addition to his academic interests, he works out at a gym to bond with the other students.

Tian, 22, is otherwise a senior student of preventive medicine at Peking University Health Science Center.

But intrigued by the idea of receiving world-class education at home, he decided to join the program that focuses on liberal arts and research at Duke Kunshan University, a venture jointly set up by Duke University of the US, Wuhan University and the city of Kunshan, in Jiangsu, in 2013. It has been offering master's programs since 2014.

The program Tian attends also serves as a platform for members of the faculty at the university to prepare for the launch of its full-fledged undergraduate degree courses in the fall of 2018. Both Chinese and foreign students can apply for them from August, with the first batch size expected to be 175.