The Road
QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific
Day 1
Highlights from the first day of the 2025 QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific
Coverage by Eugenia Lim
"No single nation or institution can meet these challenges alone."
"The role of leadership is to inspire motivation and provide resources to turn their vision into reality."
Global challenges and collaborative solutions
As humanity faces complex challenges like climate change, inequality and the relentless pace of technological advancements, Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) emphasised the importance of working together as global citizens.
“No single nation or institution can meet these challenges alone,” said Mr Ban, speaking at the opening ceremony of the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2025.
“We have to join all our hands together, that’s a hard lesson that I have learned during my 10 years of work as Secretary General of the UN.”
Themed Advancing Generational Potential: Skills and Partnerships in the Asia Pacific, the summit comes at a time when Seoul is increasingly being recognised as a hub for educational innovation and culture. It also marks the 120th anniversary of Korea University, celebrating academic excellence.
Mr Ban also highlighted Korea's transformative journey in modern history; the country flipped its fortunes in just a few decades, turning from a UN aid recipient to the world's 10th-largest economy and a donor country.
As a career diplomat who continues to promote higher education and global citizenship through the Ban Ki-moon Centres in Seoul, Vienna and New York, Mr Ban shared his belief that quality education is fundamental for fostering collaboration and addressing the challenges of today.
Calling on universities to go beyond job preparation, Mr Ban said universities must also foster critical thinking, empathy, and ethical judgment in their students.
“Young people are not only the beneficiaries of the future, they are its architects. As such our task is to empower them as global citizens, able to collaborate, innovate and act responsibly on a global scale.”
Mr Ban asked delegates to renew a shared commitment to build a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable world for all through quality education. He repeatedly called on universities to empower students not only to achieve personal success, but fulfil their responsibilities as global citizens.
“Let us strengthen partnerships among universities, governments and industries so that our collective efforts may yield lasting impact. True leadership is not measured by ranking or titles but by how many lives we uplift, how much potential we unlock and how deeply we contribute to humanity’s progress” he said.
Transformational leadership in challenging times
What will transformational leadership in higher education amidst challenges such as demographic shifts, AI acceleration, and climate change, look like?
Moderator Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research at Australia’s Southern Cross University opened the session by asking panellists to share their varied experiences.
Dr Midya Yousefi, Assistant Professor of China’s Wenzhou-Kean University, kicked off the session by defining transformational leadership as inspiring and motivating others towards collective goals to drive change.
She explained that key competencies for transformational leaders include emotional intelligence, strategic visioning, and effective communication.
“In higher education, transformational leadership is more than managing universities or maintaining institutions, it’s about creating purpose, vision and collaboration when things are not certain, during challenging times,” said Dr Yousefi.
She also emphasised the importance of adaptability, resilience and agility for leaders navigating AI, funding pressures and globalisation.
“It’s all about inspiring faculty, students, staff to the shared purpose to navigate the challenging times and to pass this transition successfully and impacting the next generation.” she said.
Dr Yousefi also emphasised inclusivity, collaboration and foresight to anticipate change and mobilise collective intelligence. She highlighted the challenge for leaders to integrate meaningful human interaction within the digital landscape and uphold ethical principles.
Meanwhile, Valerie Won Lee, creator of the Social-Impact-Global (SIG) Framework and author of Social-Impact-Global, shared her personal journey and leadership philosophy. Her early life experiences living in a small French town as one of only a few Asians shaped her personal understanding of leadership. She believes that everyone is a leader, influencing others through action or inaction.
She spoke of her experience working with university student volunteers as a founder of World Citizen Artists, which is a platform to raise awareness on humanitarian and social issues through the arts. She empowered student volunteers by giving them ownership, responsibility, and a platform for their voice, which reaped successful results for the causes they worked on.
Professor Yong-Sang Choi, University Strategy Officer of Ewha Womans University in Korea, defined good leadership as inspiring voluntary followership and fostering inclusivity.
Professor Choi added that Ewha Womans University's leadership structure reflects delegated trust and respect for all faculty, staff, and students through a democratic voting process.
“The role of leadership is to inspire motivation and provide resources to turn their vision into reality,” he said.
To do this, Ewha Womans University institutionalised the Office of University Strategy, which he heads. Under his leadership, they want to respond quickly to the shift to AI, by identifying key opportunities, such as recruiting new students in a dedicated AI department, as well as building sustainable infrastructure to power it.