Speaking at a World Cities Summit discussion yesterday on how city leaders can engage with their communities to build more resilient cities, SMU President Professor Lily Kong said the higher education sector has a role to play in strengthening societal resilience. "Be it contributing to individual, environmental or economic resilience, universities have a responsibility to play a role... through the graduates that emerge and the programmes that we put out," said Prof Kong. For instance, many students supported less-advantaged communities, such as migrant workers, in developing their mental resilience when they were isolated and impacted by the pandemic, she said.