Vice President - CoL :- Prof. Asha Singh kanwar
Professor Asha Singh Kanwar became Vice President of the Commonwealth of Learning on 1 April 2006 and assumed additional responsibility as Programme Director in April 2007. She is specifically responsible for stakeholder engagement and programme direction.
Professor Kanwar joined COL as Education Specialist, Higher Education, on 1 March 2003 with the major responsibility of working with Commonwealth governments and organisations in policy and systems development, within the context of open and distance learning (ODL).
Before joining COL, Professor Kanwar was a consultant in open and distance learning at UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Africa (BREDA) in Dakar, Senegal. During this assignment, her task was to promote and co-ordinate open and distance learning (ODL) in Sub-Saharan Africa and she was instrumental in placing ODL at the centre of ministerial deliberations and the agenda for the development of education in Africa. The West African initiative led to the establishment of an ODL Resource Centre at BREDA and later to the development of a regional Centre of Expertise at the National Open University of Nigeria.
Dr. Kanwar's engagement with distance education began when she joined Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as a Reader in 1988. In 1992 she was appointed Professor and 1996 was designated Director of the School of Humanities. In 1999, she became Pro-Vice Chancellor of IGNOU.
Commonwealth of Learning at the ceremony to launch preparations for the 6th Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, Chennai, India on 10th October, 2009
Professor Asha Singh Kanwar became Vice President of the Commonwealth of Learning on 1 April 2006 and assumed additional responsibility as Programme Director in April 2007. She is specifically responsible for stakeholder engagement and programme direction.
