"We greatly appreciate the Gates Foundation's support of our efforts to address critical global health issues," said UC President Mark G. Yudof. "Although still in the planning stage, the proposal to develop a multicampus school is an interesting and innovative concept. The grant from the Gates Foundation will enable the planners to develop a robust plan that enables the University of California to contribute in new ways to the solution of problems involving global health."
The two-year grant of $3,986,535 will fund final planning efforts for the School of Global Health, which is expected to seek UC Regents' approval in 2010 and officially enroll students in summer 2011. Regents received a briefing on the proposal in September from Sir Richard Feachem, global health professor at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley, and Haile Debas, M.D., executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences and former UCSF chancellor, who has led the initiative to create the systemwide school.
"In many ways, California mirrors the world," Debas said. "Global health problems such as those associated with migration, climate change and emerging pandemics are, in California, local health problems that demand solutions. A School of Global Health would give UC a novel framework through which to mobilize and leverage its resources to solve these problems."
The proposed school would be a multicampus program, with five or more global health centers linking participating campuses and an administrative center on one of the 10 UC campuses. The centers would each focus on a major global health challenge, such as infectious diseases, climate change and health or food security.
The school would integrate the expertise of UC faculty in health and biological sciences, social sciences, law, business and engineering to tackle global health issues. More than 800 UC faculty members have shown an interest in global health, with strong turnout this fall at campus workshops on global health issues. Students also have expressed interest in this subject. A recent UC survey of students on the Los Angeles and San Diego campuses found that more than half of undergraduates were "somewhat or very interested" in a major or minor in global health, with 11 percent interested in pursuing graduate-level study in the field.
The proposed school was first mentioned by the UC Long Range Guidance Team in 2005, and then recommended by a faculty exploratory committee. A UC Office of the President grant supported Phase I planning for the school, which began in August 2007, responding to both the rising impact of global health challenges in California and to demand from the nation's top post-graduate school applicants for programs addressing global health needs.
"Global health is an emerging academic discipline," said Ellen Switkes, UC planning coordinator for the School of Global Health. "There's a huge amount of interest in it in universities around North America."
Aided by the Gates Foundation grant, Phase II efforts will include completing planning details of governance and administration; designing educational programs and developing the curriculum; initiating the process to identify, organize and develop centers of expertise; planning for a state-of-the-art information and communication system; developing a fundraising strategy; developing a detailed resource plan; and developing partnerships with other universities and organizations around the world.
About the University of California
The University of California, recognized worldwide for its academic distinction, includes more than 220,000 students, 180,000 faculty and staff, and a $19 billion annual budget at its 10 campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. UC's five medical centers support the clinical teaching programs of the university's medical and health sciences schools and handle more than three million patient visits each year. The university offers programs in more than 150 disciplines, many of which are ranked among the top 10 nationally, and for the last 14 years has generated more patents than any other university in the nation. The UC system also is involved in managing the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos, N.M. For more information on the University of California, visit: www.universityofcalifornia.edu