The third day of the international seminar QS in Conversation, organised by Banasthali Vidyapith in collaboration with QS, began on 15 February with a fresh verve and vigour. The fifth session of the seminar focused upon advancing female leadership through higher education. The session opened up with the presentation of Dr. Haifa Jamal Allail, President, Effat University, Saudi Arabia who talked about gender and leadership. She enumerated four types of leadership; Entrepreneurial leadership, Philanthropic leadership, Materialistic leadership, and Transformational leadership. The second speaker of the session was Dr. lailani l. Alcantara, Associate Dean, Collage of International Management, Japan. She discussed the major concern of Masculinity — Feminity: What does it imply for leadership and innovationIJ She said, “Gender is a cultural construct and the world makes a distinction between male and female.” She also added, “leadership as a process is more feminine in nature.” Nature, form and function of higher education were also extensively deliberated. The third speaker, Michele Ozumba, President, Women’s Collage Coalition, US, underlined the fact that the higher education must aim at inculcating Team Work, Entrepreneurship, and Critical Thinking. Further she said, “Transformation of complex cultural identities. Education is not just to teach work but to teach life.” The last speaker of the session was Dr. Anita BZ Abdul Aziz, Vice Chancellor and President, Brunei Darussalam. She recounted that higher education must aim at developing Critical thinking, Reasoning, Communication skill, Qualitative Analysis, National and Global Outlook, Entrepreneurship, Environment Awareness. Finally, the session came to its close when Prof. Ina Shastri, Pro-vice-chancellor, Banasthali University, presented mementos, token of appreciation, to all speakers of the session.
The sixth and the last session highlighted “The Globalization Angle: Trends and Transformations in Global Women’s Higher Education.” The session commenced with the presentation of Professor Kamila Ghazali, Associate Vice-Chancellor, University of Malaya, Malaysia. She said, “Women occupy some major positions in higher education as far as the case of the University of Malaya goes.” The next speaker of the session was Karen Imam, Director Binus University, Indonesia who presented her views on internationalisation and women leadership development in Indonesia. The third presenter of the session was Dr. Hana Abdullah, King Saudi University, Saudi Arabia. She stated the fact that women enjoy a major space in higher education. The last speaker of the session was Professor Nigel Healey, Vice Chancellor, Fiji National University, Fiji who examined some visible changes in women’s education in contemporary age. Further, he said that any attempt of creating educational policy must include the agenda and interest of women. At the end, Professor Sidharth Shastri presented a token of appreciation to all speakers. At this juncture, Peter, the coordinator of the program, spelled out that QS may prepare different methods for ranking for women universities.