Dr. Kanwar has over thirty years of experience in teaching, research, and administration. In addition to the several books, research papers and articles to her credit, she has made significant contributions to gender studies, especially the impact of distance education on the lives of Asian women. These studies have established that better educational opportunities and access to new technologies have made substantial differences to the attitudes, values, and concerns of Asian women.

Professor Kanwar joined COL in 2003 as Education Specialist, Higher Education, and became Vice President in 2006. Her current role includes specific responsibility for stakeholder engagement and programme direction. Earlier, she was Director of the School of Humanities at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (India). Prior to joining COL, she worked in Africa as a consultant in open and distance learning at UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) in Dakar, Senegal.

"I am very pleased that Asha will succeed me", says Sir John Daniel. "In her years at COL as Specialist for Higher Education and, since 2006, as Vice President, she has made an immense contribution, bringing greater focus to our programme and inspiring many more governments to support COL financially. I am delighted that COL will have a woman as president for the first time."

"COL is a unique organisation which has the ability to respond to the needs of a wide range of stakeholders", says Professor Kanwar, "from the Batwa community in the forests of Uganda, the rural women in Malawi, goat herders in India, construction workers in Nauru, out-of-school youth in Jamaica to ministries and tertiary institutions across the Commonwealth. Being relevant to such a diverse constituency and delivering on results is both a challenge and an opportunity that I look forward to."



Professor Kanwar will take up her duties on 01 June.