Duke Kunshan University has received 5,213 applications from Chinese students for its undergraduate program, pushing the worldwide total this year to a record high of nearly 10,000.
The number of Chinese applications is a 34 percent increase on last year and follows the 4,705 lodged by overseas students from 123 countries before the international deadline in January.
Five hundred students – 350 Chinese and 150 international – will now be selected from the total pool of 9,918 applicants to form the Class of 2028 this fall.
The number of applicants increased significantly right across the 22 provinces and cities on the Chinese mainland in which Duke Kunshan currently recruits students, with the largest tallies coming from Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing. Year-on-year increases in applications from Beijing and Shanghai were 65 percent and 46 percent respectively.
Dr. Hanguo Li, dean of the China Enrollment Management Office at Duke Kunshan, said they are excited about reaching another record high this year.
“In addition to the increase in quantity, we also saw a significant improvement in the quality of applications. Applicants were impressed by Duke Kunshan’s innovative approach to undergraduate education based on a liberal arts and sciences model with a strong international outlook.
“More and more outstanding high school students and parents in China are choosing Duke Kunshan University, which is great recognition of our educational philosophy and achievements so far.”
The Class of 2028 will receive bachelor’s degrees from DKU and Duke University after completing the four-year undergraduate program which they start in August.
Over the course of their undergraduate studies, DKU will help inspire them to generate new ideas and develop inventive solutions to the world’s challenges, with an emphasis on fostering critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and exploration.
The new class will be supported in developing a sense of social responsibility and global citizenship, as well as strong, transferable intellectual, analytical and practical skills to enable them to apply knowledge in real-world settings. As part of that, faculty will encourage them to engage in meaningful research from their first year at Duke Kunshan.
Arriving at DKU this fall, the freshmen will reap the benefits of working and living on a world-class campus that was recently upgraded to add more state-of-the-art research and classroom space, arts and music facilities, leisure and sports areas and much more as part of the Phase 2 expansion.
Chancellor of Duke Kunshan Dr. Yaolin Liu said, “Behind the nearly 10,000 applications is the recognition and trust of students and parents at home and abroad in Duke Kunshan’s educational model and achievements.
“I look forward to welcoming students from all over the world this fall. Undergraduates come to the Duke Kunshan campus to study, research and explore together in a diverse, innovative and international environment.
“We will go all out to help our students to become leaders equipped to solve the major challenges facing the world.”
DKU Executive Vice Chancellor Dr. John Quelch said, “This new record number of applications is another milestone for Duke Kunshan.
“It tells us that ambitious young people place great value in an education that equips them with the analytical skills and interdisciplinary knowledge to take the lead in addressing global challenges.
“The Class of 2028 will be welcomed to DKU this fall from all over the world. Five hundred successful students will be immersed in an international community with boundless opportunities to engage in research with world-class faculty.”
DKU’s successes as a young institution that celebrated its 10th anniversary last year are evident through the two undergraduate classes that it has already sent out to the world.
Members of the Class of 2022 and the Class of 2023 went on to continue their studies at top universities— such as Cambridge, Duke, Harvard and Peking — or join leading employers, including AstraZeneca, Deloitte, Huawei, Tencent and the World Health Organization.
Some of them embarked on world-renowned scholarships: Rhodes at Oxford University, Schwarzman at Tsinghua University, McCall MacBain at McGill University, among others.
