Creating opportunities, expanding access, and shaping the future of global learning.
Professor Selva Pankaj’s work with Regent Global began from a grassroots response to a clear need: accessible, practical routes into further and higher education. Although a qualified chartered management accountant working in senior roles in globally renowned financial and investment institutions, Selva was offering private tuition at £20 an hour to make ends meet when he, alongside his life and business partner Tharshiny and his late father, founded Regent Independent College. That small, community-led start has evolved into Regent Global, a diversified international group active across different sectors.
Over 25 years, Regent Global has built a portfolio of businesses and initiatives that together aim to democratise learning and create pathways to opportunity. The group’s education-focused entities include Regent College London (RCL), a higher education institution in the UK; Regent European University, a fully digital university based in San Marino delivering an MBA; Regent Institute Middle East, a technical and vocational education and training centre in Dubai; Gulf Indian High School, one of the oldest schools in Dubai; and University Study Centre in Dubai with INTO University Partnerships.
Outside education, Regent Global pursues related investments in real estate, tourism and other ventures in the UK, Europe and Dubai, using diversified activity to support and scale its educational mission.
Building Opportunities Through Education
Selva’s early life shaped his mission. He left Sri Lanka at 19 with £100 in his pocket during the Civil War. His parents weren’t able to support him through a university degree so he enrolled in a chartered accountancy course then worked his way into senior roles at Prudential Financial Inc., Fortress Investment Group, Schroders, and Grosvenor. He has always believed in the power of education to transform lives, and he also knows how circumstance and geography can limit access.
At Regent College London, Selva and Tharshiny designed a system built around real needs: morning, evening and weekend classes, multiple entry points, and academic pathways that support working adults. As a result, two thirds of RCL students are over 30 and most work alongside their studies. Their aim was simple: remove barriers and offer high‑quality routes into higher education.
As technology advanced, Selva expanded Regent Global’s reach through digital learning. Regent European University in San Marino delivers a fully online MBA, and a second digital university in the United States is scheduled to launch in 2026. Through AI Regent (AIR), Selva is exploring how artificial intelligence can personalise and democratise education on a global scale. AIR is positioned to research and develop personalised learning via human-centred AI, Selva frames this as intelligence augmentation (NI + AI = IA), where natural intelligence is amplified by technology rather than replaced by it.
Regent Global: A Diverse Group with a Shared Purpose
Although Regent Global’s educational institutions are central to its identity, and the focus of this feature, education is only one part of a larger organisation. The group works across multiple sectors including:
- Higher and further education (Regent College London, Regent Institute Middle East)
- Digital universities (Regent European University; a US digital university launching in 2026)
- Technology and AI‑driven learning (AI Regent, Regent Imagination Design and Execution 21)
- Real estate, tourism, and investment across the UK, Europe and Dubai including Regent Castle and Regent Connect.
This breadth helps Regent Global reinvest in its mission, using the strength of a multi‑sector organisation to fuel innovation in education and access to learning.
Leading With Purpose and Global Perspective
Selva describes himself as a global citizen. Born in Sri Lanka, now a British citizen, and holding residencies in Dubai, the USA, and Malta, he sees leadership as a responsibility that extends beyond borders. Regent Global’s aim is to make the world better through education, innovation, and impact.
Philanthropy is central to this purpose. Regent Global supports large‑scale social causes, including:
- Support for the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, including Selva’s role as Chair of SG70, the group responsible for securing the Award’s financial sustainability ahead of its 70th anniversary
- Partnerships with the World Economic Forum (WEF), World Governments Summit, India Global Forum and JA Worldwide
- Global Unity Forum, promoting peace and harmony
- Public Learn, a platform created by Regent and gifted to Sri Lanka that democratises education by enabling people to access free courses from world-leading institutions.
For Selva, profit and philanthropy are inseparable, “two sides of the same coin” that strengthen each other when purpose is clear.
Overcoming Challenges Through Mindset
The UK higher education sector faces well‑documented challenges, including financial pressures and changing visa rules. Rather than focusing on uncertainty, Selva grounds his leadership in mindset, discipline and the “natural laws that govern life,” ideas he studied at Harvard and Stanford and captured in the Thinking into Character programme and books he has created.
His approach: focus on students, pursue partnerships and create value across the UK, Dubai, India, the USA and Europe. This mindset echoes lessons from his father, who taught him to set clear goals, persevere and believe in potential, even after his family lost everything during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Values at the Heart of Innovation
Regent Global was founded on three core values: service, integrity and character. These principles guide every decision.
- Service – offering something of value to others
- Integrity – choosing what is right, not what is easy
- Character – the Regent Global ethos is that “the end result of education is character.”
Expanding Access Through Philanthropy and Innovation
Philanthropy is central to how Regent works. Public Learn, a platform gifted to Sri Lanka, aggregates free online courses and makes the Thinking into Character (TiC) programme freely available there. Selva chaired SG70 to help secure the financial sustainability of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award ahead of its 70th anniversary; Regent Global provided administrative support. The Duke of Edinburgh International Award programme’s reported global social value in 2023 was $1,408 million USD (£940m) across more than 120 countries, an example Selva cites to show the impact of non-formal education. Selva’s long involvement with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award demonstrates his commitment to non‑formal education.
Selva also works with international partners, World Economic Forum (WEF), JA Worldwide, and participated as a panel member and strategic partner at the World Governments Summit in Dubai (2025). Regent Global became a member of WEF in 2024 in recognition of contributions towards sustainability and global engagement.
Rethinking Education: From Outside-In to Inside-Out
A core intellectual strand of Selva’s work is the distinction between “outside-in” education (knowledge and skills) and “inside-out” education (mindset, character, attitudes). Selva remembers his father talking about the importance of character and the power of thoughts. His father was a wealthy man when Selva was growing up but lost his wealth when he fled Sri Lanka during the civil war. He knew though that he would gain many hundred times more than he had lost because he believed that we become what we think about.
A Moment That Shifted the Mission
Although Selva’s father had introduced him to the natural laws of success through his ideas about the importance of character and the power of thought, it was the late Professor Clay Christensen at Harvard who crystallised the ideas Selva had grown up with and inspired him to make these principles widely available.
After deepening his understanding of natural laws through his executive education, Selva developed the Thinking into Character programme and authored supporting books, Thinking into Character, The Power of Learning from DAD and The Mindset, to formalise inside-out learning and integrate it in both formal and non-formal contexts. These materials are disseminated through the Thinking into Character platform, Public Learn and a radio programme, Our Changing World on Sunrise Radio.
Looking to the Future
Selva hopes the next generation understands the power of inside‑out education and uses it to lead fulfilling lives. Through AI Regent, he aims to develop tools that democratise learning globally.
He remains committed to lifelong learning himself, contributing to Stanford Design School, attending courses at Harvard and Stanford, and learning from mentors including Huggy Rao and Richard Harpin.
Words for the Next Generation of Innovators
Selva advises future leaders to set clear, measurable goals that prioritise social impact. With long‑term thinking and the courage to take on big‑picture challenges, technology can serve people, not the other way around.
He is working on a prize with World Governments Summit, the Universities Global Challenge, to support research into human-centred AI. It is not a short-term project, nor will the research deliver immediate results, but because it supports Selva’s belief in the power of combining AI and NI, he knows it is worth pursuing.
Awards and Recognition
Selva’s leadership has been recognised internationally:
- Business Person of the Year, Asian Achievers Awards 2025
- Visionary Business Leader of the Year, British Asians Who’s Who Awards 2025
- New Champion Community Choice Award, World Economic Forum 2025
- Listed in the Asian Rich List 101 2024 and 2025
- Named among the Top 100 Influential People by Awards Intelligence 2024
