McNair believed that women's education should be intellectually equal to men's and alumnae encouraged to be active in public life.

[5] During the 1930s, admission standards, teacher/pupil ratios, extracurruclar activities and a fee schedule set Kinnaird apart as the region's most prestigious women's college.

[5] The demographics had also shifted with a majority of pupils now coming from middle to upper class Hindu families, where an English education from a leading women's college was regarded as an important step in arranging a good marriage.

[5] After Partition in 1947, the University of the Punjab Senate decided to replace English with Urdu as the medium of instruction and examination for higher education.

Despite this change, Kinnaird continued to offer women higher education in newly created Pakistan and added science courses, typing, nursing and social work to its curriculum.