His interests in French literature began in 1962 at St. Andrews College in Scotland. Today, at 58, he teaches at the University of Oxford, England, with the same enthusiasm he had while attending Cambridge University in the '60s, where he attained his doctorate. UCLA and Oxford are worlds apart in their teaching regimes, notes Cave. In the latter, the classroom environment is somewhat impersonal because students are evaluated at the end of their academic careers, not by grades like in UCLA's quarter system. There is also very little dialogue between instructor and student at Oxford.
Students receive tutorials from their professors and meet with advisors on a regular basis.
Classroom sizes are larger and students seldom speak up during the first few weeks of the quarter. Having experienced two entirely distinct institutions, Cave speaks from a rationalizing perspective. The opportunity to teach and conduct research in a distinguished institution brings an invaluable measure of wisdom that is not easily attained by other means. His career began in Peking University, China, as an undergraduate. He continued on to UC Berkeley where he received his doctorate in 1985.