Abstract

Leadership is an essential, fundamental quality for university students in the present age. Leadership education is essential for students to develop new talents with an international outlook and a willingness to shoulder international responsibilities. Emotionally intelligent leadership (EIL) is an organic aspect of leadership in university students, with the cognitive dimension of university student leadership often realized via their emotional intelligence. To investigate the relation between EIL in students and their cognitive learning ability, this study surveyed 480 students (157 males and 323 females) from three arts universities in Hebei province, China. The results indicate that emotional awareness, self-awareness, and awareness of others have a significant impact on cognitive learning abilities. Gender is a moderating factor between EIL and cognitive learning abilities, with the effect of EIL on such abilities being greater for males than females. The results and suggestions of this study will provide new exploration for the development of emotionally intelligent leadership theory and provide a theoretical basis for the management of art major classes in higher education institutions in Hebei province, so as to better fulfill the function of talent cultivation.