International Education

“What programs do our colleges and universities offer to prepare students for a world in which the influence of the Pacific nations will be an increasingly dominant force?  What are we doing to give our students a more complete understanding of the nations to our south, to our west, and to our north?” David P. Gardner, “The Pacific Century,” Science, V. 237, No. 4812, (July 17, 1987), 233.

I had been thinking…about California’s favored position on the western coast of North America: the border with Mexico…with Central and South America stretching southward.  [Looking west], the next landfall, islands excepted, was East Asia—the Far East.  But in relation to California, it was our Near West. (Earning My Degree, p. 221)   

Gardner with President Salinas
David Gardner with CarlosSalinas de Gotari, President of Mexico, San Diego, Fall 1991

Publications and Speeches

Publications

"The Pacific Century," Science, 237, no. 4812 (July 17, 1987), 233.

2-24-1988--“Internationalization: The State of the Institution,” Educational Record, 71, #2 (Spring 1990), 8-13.

Speeches

6-5-1986—“California and the Pacific Rim: A UC Perspective,” Oakland Rotary Club, Oakland, California

2-24-1988—“The University of California: a Global Perspective,” World Affairs Council, Los Angeles, California

Related Speeches:

  • 12-7-1984—“California and the Pacific Rim,” California Press Association, San Francisco
  • 5-18-1985—“California and the Pacific Community,” Chinese-American Economic and Technology Development Association, San Francisco, California

3-12-1988--“The Internationalization of Higher Education,” Tenth Pullias Lecture, University of Southern California

Related speeches:

  • 4-22-1988--“The Internationalization of the University,” University of Bordeaux, France 
  • 5-1-1988--“The Internationalization of the University,” World Affairs Council, Asilomar, California

Founding the University of California, San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS)

There were no schools of international relations in the western United States, the Jackson School at the University of Washington excepted.  [In discussion with UC San Diego Chancellor Richard Atkinson, I inventoried] UCSD’s favored geography, the absence of such schools in the west, and the need for the University of California to offer students more opportunities for advanced work in international relations [and] opportunities for students and faculty alike for exchanges with universities in Latin America and Asia…[UC San Diego] would be leading with a program unique to UC, and one needed nationally…The faculty reacted favorably to these ideas…

The UCSD initiative also prompted me to think more broadly about UC research programs concerned with  the community of nations rimming the Pacific Ocean.  Many of these were in need of additional support, and there were deficiencies in our curricula and study abroad programs that also needed to be addressed…I focused on this issue personally throughout my presidency…  (Earning My Degree, pp. 221-2, 224)

The faculty at UCSD were the ones who thought it through carefully and put the proposal together…Mine was just an early and encouraging thought. (A Life in Higher Education, p. 313)

University of California, San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS)

IR/PS Founding AttendeesFrom left, David Gardner, UCSD Chancellor Richard Atkinson, Governor George Deukmejian, 
Founding IR/PS Dean Peter Gourevitch, 1986 IR/PS Inaugural Ceremony
—Photo courtesy of IR/PS

Speech

3-10-1988--“Cooperation and Competition in the Pacific Rim: The Challenge for Education,” Dedication of the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, UC San Diego 


Growing the University of California Education Abroad Program (EAP)

“[The University of California’s Education Abroad Program] was a wonderful program.  It was all in Europe, the Middle East, Africa…Very few programs, very few students in Asia…We need[ed] to develop our contacts and opportunities for our students to study there…I can’t just wish [these programs].  I have to work through other people and I did.”  (A Life in Higher Education, pp. 318-19)

University of California Education Abroad Program (EAP)

EAP Programs around the World

Education Abroad Programs


Forming the Pacific Rim University Presidents Group

My Asian contacts and experiences also led to the formation in 1989 of an organization to advance the common interests of the leading university in each country bordering the Pacific Rim, including North America, Mexico, East Asia, Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and Fiji.  This organization was the idea of Ambassador Hayden Williams who had also served for many years as president of the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation.  He asked if, together with his help, the University of California might wish to lead in forming such an organization.

Yes, I said with enthusiasm.  The first meeting was held in San Francisco in 1989, the second eighteen months later at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, and the last in spring 1992 in Seoul, Korea.  Only the presidents of the leading university in each country could attend.  No substitutes. (Earning My Degree, p. 302)

Invitations and Guest Lists

1989 Conference

1990 Conference

Agenda--1992 Conference

Speeches

5-10-1989—Remarks for Opening Dinner, Pacific Rim Universities Conference, San Francisco, California

11-27-1990—“Universities and the Pacific Rim,” Second Pacific Rim Presidents Conference, Bangkok, Thailand

4-8-1992 address to the Korean Council for University Education, Seoul, Korea published as “The Internationalization of the University," The Role of University Education in the Asia/Pacific Age, ed. Ki-ouk Kwon, Proceedings of the 1992 Seoul International Conference, (June 1992), 19-28. 

See Related Publication and Speech: