Duke Kunshan University's international students face challenges with social integration

As per reports, the study abroad students at Duke Kunshan University China are feeling frustrated and they feel like second-class citizens.

Duke Kunshan University exchange students reportedly expressed mixed responses following their semester stay at the University. The study abroad program in Durham intended to integrate the DKU students into the broader Duke community through participation in student groups and activities alongside their Duke peers. However, international students face challenges with social integration.

As per The Duke Chronicle, which is Duke University's independent student news organization, DKU juniors Daivik Thanki and Faith Ho, president and vice president of DKU House Council respectively opine that the barriers to social integration reflect deeper divides that make DKU students feel like “second-class citizens.”

As per the Vice President, though it is common for international students to face challenges while studying in any university in a foreign land she feels that the study abroad students at the DKU have a more difficult time overcoming the social barriers. She added that it is due to the lack of “institutional frameworks [and] initiatives to actually bridge” the gap between DKU and Duke students.

Students face communication, coordination issues

Recently, the students did not receive emails about details on picking up wristbands, and events celebrating the last day of classes. They were informed at 9:20 p.m. in an April 23 email from Michael Croal, assistant director of Student Involvement and Leadership, that they had been added to the late wristbanding process.

Valerie Hausman, associate vice provost of Duke-DKU programming and strategy in the Duke Office of DKU Relations, wrote in an email to The Chronicle that DKU students are “welcome to engage in virtually all activities available to Duke students,” citing participation in student organizations, research with faculty and intramural sports as examples.

The university provides programming to help DKU students adjust through orientation sessions, career and graduate school panels and a weekly newsletter, among others, she added.

DKU Professor awarded Harvard Fellowship

Selina Lai-Henderson, an associate professor of American literature and history at DKU has been awarded a Fellowship at the W.E.B Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University. She will begin her work under the Fellowship from next spring.

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