Dr. Kavita A. Sharma

Dr. Kavita A. Sharma, former President of South Asian University, taught at Hindu College, University of Delhi, for 37 years, serving as its Principal for ten. She was Director of the India International Centre, New Delhi, from 2008 to 2014. She received Indo-Canadian Shastri Fellowships twice, in 1991–92 and 2002–03, and a Fulbright New Century Scholar Fellowship in 2007–08 for research on higher education in the twenty-first century.

Her principal research interests are higher education and the Mahabharata. Her major publications on higher education include Perspectives on Indian Education (2017), National University of Education Planning and Administration: A Transformational Journey (NUEPA, 2015), Hindu College, Delhi: A People's Movement (2014), 60 Years of the University Grants Commission: Establishment, Growth and Evolution (2013), and Internationalisation of Higher Education: An Aspect of India's Foreign Relations. Her two most recent books are Association of Indian Universities: A Century of Evolution, Transformation and Leadership (2025), co-authored with Dipti Tripathi, and Echoes of Nalanda (2026). Her writings on the Mahabharata include Life Is As Is: Teachings from the Mahabharata (2018) and From Death to Immortality: The Great War in Mahabharata (2026), both co-authored with Indu Ramchandani, along with Birds, Beasts, Men and Nature in Mahabharata (2008), Queens of Mahabharata (2006), and Windmills of the Mind (2006).

She holds a national record in the Limca Book of Records as the first woman President of South Asian University (2014–2019), the first woman to head a co-educational college at the University of Delhi (Hindu College, 1998–2008), and the first woman Director of the India International Centre (2008–2014).