The Signature Work office supports the two-year student journey and development of their SW projects. Duke Kunshan University graduates will have experience addressing complex problems outside the classroom as well as within, developing these skills through “Signature Work”. Signature Work encourages students to seek creative alignments between curricular pathways and to engage in experiential learning that leads to the creation of knowledge and products for scholarly, private sector and public audiences.

Signature Work calls for each student to identify one or more questions, problems, or issues that are of particular importance to him or herself and to society, and to investigate these through a combination of curricular and related co-curricular experiences. Students develop guided pathways, identify questions, and undertake projects early in their academic career. During the sophomore year students work with their advisors and faculty mentors to begin identifying the major questions, problems, or issues on which they would like to work, and to develop a pathway that includes three thematically linked courses drawn from students’ interdisciplinary studies, disciplinary studies or electives, one or more co-curricular or experiential activities, and two capstone courses in which a student creates a substantial scholarly or creative signature product. Experiences derived from the co-curricular experiential learning component should establish, build on, solidify, or enhance academic work aligned with the Signature Work project. These experiences should help DKU undergraduate students prepare for their next steps beyond DKU. Experiential learning activities might include, but are not limited to, internships, practica, laboratory work, creative arts-based project, entrepreneurship-based project, community-based fieldwork or other civic projects.

The Signature Work Project will vary across fields and disciplines, but will always include substantial scholarly writing,  reflection  on learning,  and  publicly   visible   results.   A student’s Signature Work topic will be identified by the end of the sophomore year, at the latest. In the junior and senior years,   a   student   will   create   an   e-portfolio   that   captures   both   the Signature Work Product a student has produced and a narrative explaining the larger inquiry informing their Signature Work Project. Further information is available in the Signature Work Guide.