Asha Singh Kanwar
Member of the Globethics Board of Foundation
Professor Asha Singh Kanwar, the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), is one of the world’s leading advocates of learning for sustainable development. Throughout a career spanning over 40 years, she has made outstanding contributions in the areas of teaching, research and international development. With expertise in areas like open educational resources, quality assurance, and gender studies, she has contributed significantly to her field through over a dozen books, 100+ publications, and numerous international keynote addresses.
Professor Kanwar, an accomplished academic in open distance and technology-enabled learning, holds an undergraduate, Master's, and MPhil from Panjab University, India, and a DPhil from the University of Sussex, UK. Her previous roles include working as a senior consultant for UNESCO’s Regional Office in Africa and serving as both the Director of the School of Humanities and Pro-Vice Chancellor at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in India.
Throughout her career, Professor Kanwar has received several prestigious awards, including the ICDE Prize of Excellence and the Meritorious Service Award from the Asian Association of Open Universities. She holds nine honorary doctorates from institutions across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America and actively serves on multiple advisory boards, including UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education and the WHO Academy's Academic Advisory Committee. Presently, she is a Chair Professor at Beijing Normal University in China and consults for global organizations like the World Bank, as well as being a member of the Globethics Pool of Experts and Board of Foundation.