DURHAM -- N.C. State University is scaling back a plan to offer degree programs at a new global university campus in South Korea.
Last year, NCSU accepted $1 million from the South Korean government to examine whether it could offer undergraduate and grad programs at a $200 billion university city under construction near the port city of Incheon.
But NCSU officials say now that the plan to offer degrees in seven undergraduate disciplines and about a dozen graduate areas is too complicated, particularly given the difficulty the university has had getting straight information from the South Koreans.
So NCSU has decided to start a new feasibility study and consider just a handful of graduate programs.
NCSU would be one of about seven American universities to offer degree programs at this campus. Though South Korea has pledged to cover the program's costs, NCSU officials say they aren't convinced of that yet and have concerns about revenues, expenses and other issues.
The South Koreans running the project want more, not less, said NCSU Provost Warwick Arden.
"They're not overly happy with this," Arden said. "They really had their heart set on N.C. State coming in with a whole suite of undergraduate courses."
But there are many questions, Arden told members of the UNC system's Board of Governors, which met this week on the N.C. Central University campus in Durham. NCSU originally considered undergrad programs in business administration, fashion and textiles, biology, computer science and other areas but hasn't been able to gauge the level of interest among South Korean students.
And there are obstacles related to accreditation, faculty hiring and ways of evaluating professors, Arden said.
Though NCSU has programs in several other countries, including India and China, this would be its first overseas campus.
For years, American universities have been courted by Asian and Middle Eastern nations building university cities for citizens. But the relationships don't always work.
In 2002, UNC-Chapel Hill considered a plan to open a campus in Qatar, an oil-rich nation in the Persian Gulf.
UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp, then director of the campus planetarium, was involved in that decision-making process and remembers similar questions over financial terms.
"There's always people coming to us [with global campus proposals], and we're always kicking the tires," Thorp said Friday. "But you usually can't prove it's going to be revenue-neutral. You can't do these things if it's going to cost the campus money."
