Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has been honoured by Harvard University for her global work promoting girls education. The 21-year-old received the 2018 Gleitsman Award on Thursday from the Centre for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School for her global movement to equip girls with 12 years of free, quality and safe education.

The award was presented to Malala at a public ceremony at Harvard Kennedy School, NBC TV Network reported. In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts for children's rights. On October 2012, she was shot in the head at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen as she was returning from her school in Pakistan's Swat valley.

Yousafzai is now a student at Oxford University in England. The Gleitsman Award provides $125,000 for activism that has improved quality of life around the world.Earlier, David Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Centre for Public Leadership said: "Malala speaks powerfully to the strength and perseverance of women and girls who are oppressed."

"Her remarkable story has inspired girls - and boys as well - to follow in her footsteps and has activated a generation of practitioners and legislators who are fighting for equality in their own communities," he said.