University President John J. DeGioia has racked up frequent flyer miles this academic year, visiting Britain, Singapore, India, Switzerland, Qatar and Mexico since July.

As his travels take him across the world to speak in scholarly settings and economic forums, DeGioia seeks to propel Georgetown onto the global academic scene.

“What I have tried to do in each of my talks is raise a key theme, which is that we have allowed globalization to be defined in market and economic terms,” DeGioia told The Hoya. “The real contribution of the academy is to bring characteristics of the ethos, the characteristics of the university, to bear on globalization.”

To kick off his summer travels, DeGioia visited Wales in July. There he received an honorary fellowship from Owain Glyndwr University.

During his trip to Singapore in August, he delivered the second annual S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecture on Universities for a Global Society at the National University of Singapore. Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, delivered the speech for its debut run last year.

Touching on his broad international experiences, DeGioia explained that every place he visits teaches him something new.

“Each place has its own distinct character and culture with a unique set of questions,” said DeGioia. “The lens in which I explore the different countries and cultures is through the lens of higher education. I tried during my travels to engage my colleagues to discuss the contributions higher education can make to expand the meaning of the term ‘globalization.'”

In November, DeGioia devoted a week to developing higher education in India, heading a delegation of university leaders visiting New Delhi to study the educational infrastructure and seeing the Child Rights Information Center in Badarpur.

Presenting the keynote address at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, DeGioia spoke on reforms in Indian higher education. Yale University President Richard Levin, Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten and former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers delivered the past few keynote addresses.

DeGioia’s mission to improve higher education abroad is not without reason. The president said that there is a need for 40 million new jobs to meet the demographic trends across the Arab world, for example. In order to meet job demands, higher education has to expand not just in the Middle East but everywhere.  In India, there has been a calculated need for 600 new universities, DeGioia explained.

“What I have tried to do in each of my talks, and there are some similarities and some differences between them, is raise the key theme that there is a need for more higher education,” said DeGioia.

January took him to Davos, Switzerland, where he participated in the World Economic Forum annual meeting. The president also launched his Facebook page that month, and followers could read about the sessions he attended at the conference including “Yes is More: The Architecture of Inclusivism” and “Insights on China.”

On Feb. 15, DeGioia was in Mexico for the board of trustees meeting at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, one of the largest universities in Latin America. There he joined former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President of Arizona State University Michael Crow and President of the Monterrey Institute of Technology Rafael Rangel Sostmann to discuss the impact of globalization on higher education.

“We must recognize the urgent need to deepen and expand our opportunities for access,” DeGioia said at the conference. “We must leapfrog, using technology to ensure all of our people have access to the learning necessary for participation in a global economy.”

In true jet-setting fashion, DeGioia had arrived in Mexico after coming from Doha, Qatar, where he had celebrated the official opening of the new Georgetown School of Foreign Service-Qatar building in Education City.

The travels forge connections not only with other universities but with Georgetown alumni as well. International alumni clubs, such as the ones in Singapore and New Delhi, have welcomed DeGioia around the globe and 50 members from the New Delhi alumni center honored him with a reception ceremony.

DeGioia’s Facebook page serves as a hub for students and alumni to keep track of the president’s travels. On the page, he writes of his intention for students to “learn more about the privilege I have of representing Georgetown in many different contexts, whether here on the Hilltop, in the city of Washington, D.C., or in various locations around the world.”

The territory covered is vast, in terms of both geography and the topics on tabs, but DeGioia summed up his travels succinctly.

“It’s been a conversation.”