HEDx

Danny Liu of the University of Sydney argues that AI makes us question not only how, but why we teach. He joins a panel that includes Susan Zhang of La Trobe, Phil Laufenberg of Macquarie and Jason Lodge of UQ. They answer questions from Sam Jacob CEO of Collarts that drive at the heart of where AI is taking tertiary education. Sam summarises a day of HEDx experts in one minute to demonstrate the Collarts manifesto of how creativity is a powerful difference, that comes from being inclusive by choice, in telling stories that change the world.

Lev Gonick is CIO of the most innovative university in the US at Arizona State. He outlines the part technology has played in the 20+ year of transformation that created a global entrepreneurial pioneer from a party-town college in the desert. In this fireside chat with Manuela Franceschini of Adobe, he reflects on what he wished he had known at the start of their journey and what his dreams of the impossible are now. He says universities like his, driven by access and public service, owe it to their graduating students to equip them for a new AI economy. He shares how their experience is guiding Shainal Kavar as CIO in Australia's AI-first La Trobe University.

Theo Farrell as Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University has a vision for agentic AI to serve the lifecycle needs of all students. Why this would solve student complaints is outlined by Sarah Bendall as Student Ombudsman sharing data from the first 2 months of the office. It needs a stable platform of data made interoperable by sector defined data standards as argued by Gemma Cadby of ACSES and Charlsey Pearce of MortarCAPS. Will Stubley of Year13 illustrates how this is already in place for students choosing personalised school to work pathways.

Dr Tim Renick of Georgia State and George Williams VC at Western Sydney are two pioneering leaders and champions of student success on the global stage. They share thoughts and perspectives from the stage at HEDx in Melbourne in a fireside chat with Veronica Pritchard of the Queensland Commitment at UQ. It argues for us getting out of our comfort zones and using AI to overcome process barriers, letting staff do human work to help students in distress. It is followed by an update from the AI in HE project where Michael Henderson of Monash and Margaret Bearman share updates of what students think of it being AI or teachers giving feedback on their learning.

Melinda Cilento as CEO of CEDA leads the national conversation for a shared plan towards Progress 2050. It has pillars of productivity and innovation and the knowledge and skills our future workforce need. In this fireside chat with Patrick Kidd CEO of the Future Skills Organisation she questions if higher education is changing fast enough and keeping up with the world around it. It provides a backdrop to a panel discussion involving Megan Lilly of Jobs and Skills Australia, Sally Curtain of Bendigo Kangan Institute, Yasminka Nemet of Microsoft and Colin Gneil of LinkedIn to explore how we can keep up with the speed of change in skills needs in an Age of AI and how a harmonised tertiary sector will help.

John Dewar of KordaMentha leads a panel of public and private university leaders re-examining strategies in the light of opportunities with AI. Pascale Quester VC of Swinburne, Andrew Parfitt VC of UTS, Dan Cockerell CEO of Torrens and Jessica Vanderlelie DVC at Deakin reflect on how AI gives a chance to learn how to be a disruptor, and regain social licence before those seeking to disrupt us, take advantage first. They argue AI is a game changer strategic opportunity and experimentation in changing the way we do things is a chance not to be missed to avoid our Kodak moment.

Theo Farrell as Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University, with his VC Fellow Dr Susan Zhang, join as co-hosts and partners with HEDx in opening the latest HEDx conference at the State Library of Victoria. They outline the importance of collaboration and partnerships for conversations and diverse views to forge shared solutions to challenges and opportunities. And they do so on the biggest topic in the sector of how Higher Education will navigate the Age of AI. It forms an opening session at HEDx with Theo and Susan in a fireside chat with Paul LeBlanc who pioneers what AI means to the future of HE in a way that guides La Trobe being AI leaders in an Australian HE landscape.

Professor Danny Liu of University of Sydney built the award-winning Cogniti.ai to enhance student learning in higher education. In this interview with Katie Ford of partner Microsoft and I, he outlines how and why it was built, and how it can be used for active experimentation with AI. He likens it to allowing stunt doubles for those exploring AI experiments in student learning. He describes the importance of setting the culture, rules, access, familiarity and trust in the collaboration we need within and between institutions to stay ahead of the curve of technology advancements. He sees promise in AI helping change higher education for good.

Charlsey Pearce is CEO of MortarCAPS Data Standard. She joins Michael Burgess, formerly of Western Sydney University, and I to describe a new data standard developed to give consistent meaning and understanding to how we all define and use data on the student journey. Financial services and banking would find it impossible to provide service and use FinTech without consistent and interoperable financial data standards. The potential for much more effective data, systems and service for students and higher education needs an interoperable data standard for student journeys.

A/Prof May Lim Sok Mui is Assistant Provost of Applied Learning at Singapore Institute of Technology. She pioneers a coaching approach to competency-based education in Singapore's fifth and most distinct university from a new campus in Punggol. She leads work into the Skills Future Singapore lifelong learning collaboration between providers, government and industry. Shortly before leaving for a global study tour to UNESCO and EU partners she joined an episode with Patrick Kidd CEO of Future Skills Organisation and I to reflect on the move to a skills agenda so vital for global lifelong learning and a strong theme at the forthcoming HEDx conference on April 2nd.

Lev Gonick the CIO of Arizona State University and Dave Rosowsky Senior Advisor to President Michael Crow are colleagues at the world's most innovative university. They share their belief that universities can remain relevant by choosing how and why they embrace AI technology. They tell the story of how ASU has done so through bold leadership and culture, a fast clock speed, a commitment to experiment relentlessly, and 300-400 partnerships with technology companies that go beyond a procurement relationship. Ahead of Lev joining HEDx on stage in Melbourne in April they foreshadow lessons others might heed from their experience as we all 'do the work" to 'change the model'.

Phil Laufenberg is Head of Artificial Intelligence at Macquarie University. His career already spans three continents, and traversing startups in technology companies to executive responsibilities in a public university. He sees a future of AI-enabled universities based on technology accelerating accessible education for all. He is committed to universities pushing the boundaries of jagged frontiers in partnerships with technology companies. He is interviewed in this episode with his friend and tech partner Nils de Vries of Amazon Web Services. Learn about the 4 use cases that have emerged from exploring 50 potential applications at Macquarie University in this episode.

Sarah Bendall of the National Student Ombudsman office, George Williams VC of WSU, Shamit Saggar of ACSES, Paul Harpur of UQ and Hashini Panditharatne of the Australian Human Rights Commission join Cate Gilpin and I in a satellite panel event at the Universities Australia solutions summit. They dissect how we can reframe equity issues and responses to make higher education providers sustainable and thriving. It requires us accepting we are the problem, listening to students, and bringing about culture change as a basis for redesigned processes enabled by technology. Let's do it.

Simon Biggs of JCU, Kris Ryan and Suzanne Le Mire of UQ and Alphia Possamai-Inesedy of WSU reflect on what they heard in Canberra this week and what it means. Sue Cunningham of CASE and Joe Avison in a personal capacity put it into global context. And tech leaders Nicola Cresp of OES, Katie Ford of Microsoft, Joel di Trapani of Vygo, Charlsey Pearce of MortarCAPS and Mark Sampson of Cenote Solutions see opportunities for tech to deliver the equity all sides of politics are calling for. Time for action now the talking is over.

Professor Damon Salesa is Vice-Chancellor of Auckland University of Technology. He is the first and only Indigenous VC of any university in Australia or New Zealand. A strong sense of commitment to community makes AUT the most likely of places to lead in this way. Damon sets out views of place-based innovation entirely appropriate to a context in South Auckland, at AUT, with a strong sense of its place in NZ and a Pacific Ocean forming a third of the planet. I analyse an interview with him with Veronica Pritchard, Program Director of The Queensland Commitment at UQ after work at NZ TEC. Multiple lessons from international perspectives to drive equity changes we have to make.

Dr Abul Rizvi is former Deputy Secretary of the departments of Immigration and Communtcation. He has a PhD in Immigration Policy from Melbourne and came to Australia as part of a migrant academic family. More than anyone, he sees the link between migration and international education from lived experience, professional expertise and scholarship. He argues, in an episode recorded with Cate Gilpin and I, for Australia to set targets for migration based on long term planning in an era of forthcoming population decline of young people from falling birth rates. And to build migration and higher education policies around that bigger need. He argues the current situation of leaving migrants and students in visa 'no-mans-land' is unjust.

Sarah Bendall as the new First Assistant Ombudsman in the Office of the National Student Ombudsman has a passion for resolving complaints. Six days into this new role she outlines the background to the office and role, and how she plans to provide a route for students to ensure they have a safe, fair and secure experience, and hold universities to account. In a conversation with Cate Gilpin of Welcoming Universities she outlines the short term priorities and long term vision for a key plank of the Universities Accord and the most significant step in caring for students the sector has seen.

Dan Greenstein, Chancellor Emeritus of the Pennsylvania State University system came to the role from time at Oxford, the University of California system, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Boston Consulting. In this episode with Keith Hawkes of Ellucian technologies, he describes the burning recruitment and completion platform that created the need to merge 14 universities into 10 and create shared back and front office systems using technology that transformed student experience and institutional sustainability. Lessons from his successes and failures to inform global universities at their time of need.

Professor Genevieve Bell joins the podcast as Vice-Chancellor and President of the ANU. She reflects on her journey as a scientist, engineer and humanist, in the US and Australia, in Silicon Valley and leading Australia's national university. She reflects on short term challenges and the long term trajectory of higher education, the role technology plays in change and goals of providing opportunity for all. An episode at the heart of the HEDx agenda with commentary with Katie Ford of Microsoft.

Ann Kirschner, Former President of Hunter College at CUNY and Aleks Subic, VC at Aston set a scene of innovating toward ominichannel higher Ed. This is before Suzanne Steel of Adobe, Arlene Stewart of OES, Andrew Proctor of AWS and Osama Khan of Aston describe how multi tech-company partnerships can help AI make this real. All described by Andrea Burrows of OES and I following a recent Aston-hosted conference in the UK.

Jared Pearlman is Chief Strategy Officer of VitalSource a global digital content provider for higher education. He and they are very focussed on the challenges students face and the need to find affordable student experiences and business models for providers in partnership with technology companies that make these experiences sustainable. Hear a great summary of the global strategic issues with equitable edtech enabled access to learning dissected in partnership with Dr Christine Levinson of HEDx sponsor and partner Construct Education from the OES group.

Sabih Bin Wasi is the Founder & CEO of Stellic. He brings his lived experience as a recent graduate in design thinking and AI at Carnegie Mellon University to his design of student systems that imnprove student engagement and experience. He does so through STellic named after one of his professor's as an integrated EdTech platform that brings together academic planning, advising, scheduling, and data analytics. The platform was designed to empower students and improve their experience when navigating their journey towards graduation. Some investors are quoted as saying "There’s no way these kids can work out the complexity of HE”. Josh Nester of SEEK Investment has another view he shares on this episode.

A final episode from the Future Solutions conference has Kelly Mathews of UQ join me to reflect on the panel she led of data from 8000+ Australian HE students surveyed by the AI in HE project about AI use. And it has two of its DVCA sponsors in Kylie Readman of UTS and Liz Johnson of Deakin, joined by George Williams of WSU, Linda Brown of Torrens and Katie Ford of Microsoft as the sector considers how it will respond to the challenges and opportunities of AI. An overwhelming call to partner with students, the tech company eco-system and each other. Are we brave enough to get out of our lane?

Recent and future hosts of HEDx Conferences are Professors Kris Ryan DVC A of UQ and Jessica Vanderlelie DVC A of La Trobe. A fireside chat with them had them comment on the impact on equity of AI strategies. These are explored by a panel at Future Solutions led by Shamit Saggar of ACSES joined by colleague Ian Li and equity experts in Kylie Austin of EPHEA, Paul Harpur of UQ and Lyndin Francis of Vygo. As Jessica says "equity isn't just a priority, its the foundation of a future ready university" meaning the implications of AI advances are critical.

Professors Jessica Vanderlelie, Allie Clemens and Rorden Wilkinson as DVCAs of La Trobe, Monash and Macquarie join the podcast to reflect on the impact of AI on the future of education. As a panel at the Microsoft HE Summit they share with Katie Ford and I a response to a provocation by George Siemens of what an AI-first university means. Changes to teaching and assessment mean the days of being a content business is over. They point to leadership, vision, culture and commitment to implementation are key to using AI to respond to current system challenges as the way forward for universities.

This episode showcases innovation from beyond public universities into the tertiary system including in innovative partnerships involving employers, global universities and private providers. It also demonstrates how partnerships with network, employer and tech companies can allow tertiary providers to thrive. Christy Collis is joined by Kerri-Lee Krause, Sam Jacob, Scott Luckett and Bijo Kunnumpurath in a panel for diversity and Guy Littlefair leads Alex Elibank-Murray, May Lim, Tash Stoeckel and Tim Burt in a panel on partnerships in two further excerpts from the recent HEDx conference at UQ.

Debbie Terry of The University of Queensland joins fellow VCs John Dewar, Helen Bartlett, Simon Biggs and Chris Moran. They respond to a provocation by Ann Kirschner of City University of New York of the need to innovate to regain social licence and serve student needs. In welcomes and an opening panel at the recent HEDx conference, these 6 public university leaders outline the need to and the form of innovation that can respond to the challenges facing the sector at a time of unprecedented challenge that creates great opportunity. They join Kelly Mathews of UQ and I in a scene setter to the recent HEDx conference at UQ.

Marc Washbourne has been founder and CEO of ReadyTech for 25 years. His personal agility has seen him grow a leading tech company of 600+ staff and named 2024 EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. He leads into the IT skills and edtech sectors through board roles with HEDx partners the Future Skills Organisation and Year13. As a user of AI, employer of graduates, and developer of lifelong learners, Marc has a keen eye for what is needed in tertiary education and its relationship with skills, employers and future learners. His keyword is agility and he offers an agile view of where AI is taking learning to complement those from leaders, edtech providers and students. We need continuous 360 views of the changes AI is bringing to skills and learning to remain relevant.

Scott Jones leads Navitas as Group CEO after more than 20 years working for this private provider in partnerships with public universities. The growth in student numbers for a future workforce, that achieves social inclusion among equity groups, needs responses beyond endless growth of public universities with comprehensive discipline offerings and research. This time of opportunity for small specialist providers, teaching only institutions and new investment in public/private partnerships, is vital if an affordable model of growth is to be achieved. Scott joins Christy Collis President-elect of HERDSA and I for a conversation about sector diversity.

Ulrik Juul Chistensen is the Danish founder of the Area 9 group of learning technology companies working in partnership with VitalSource. In this episode he outlines theories of achieving mastery through adaptive learning techniques supported by technology. He sees the number one challenge for global higher education providers to be working out how to prepare students to ask the right intelligent questions not only provide knowledge to intelligent students to have all the right answers.

George WIlliams AO is the new VC of Western Sydney University. He argues that we show our values by what we do and who we fight for. He sees that as the way to recover lost social licence for universities that more than half the population do not think positively of. The starting point in response is to recognise we have a problem. While we think we are valuable, the public do not. There is a compelling need to change, to focus on students, to embrace community, and to partner and use technology to meet students where they are, not where we want them to be.

David Stofenmacher is the purpose-driven founder and CEO of Mexican private university UTEL and established a global education company Scala partnering with multiple Latin American universities to teach 120,000 students. He joins Josh Nester MD of Seek Investments and Martin to describe his mission to provide a ROI within 2 years for all learners. He illustrates how a HigherEd entrepreneur needs patience and be prepared to learn and change every day. He illustrates the importance of staying true to mission, being single-minded about his why, and focus on opportunities not constraints.

Sam Jacob CEO of Collarts epitomises diversity in tertiary education, after a varied public and private university experience. They make a case for a teacher-centric tertiary education system to achieve student-centric experiences and that multiple provider models in the ecosystem is the best way to achieve this. In an interview with Professor Christy Collis, President-Elect of HERDSA and Martin Betts, they show few people in public universities have much understanding of the private and VET sector and how it works. This is a chance to find out.

Professor Kerry London, DVC Research at Torrens University Australia, leads a debate of global sector leaders on the state of higher education and its ability to innovate to face challenges and remain relevant to stakeholders. She is joined by Torrens colleagues in VC Professor Alwyn Louw, Associate Professor Clare Littleton, Dr Claire Davidson, and Professor Matthew Mundy. And by Dr Samantha Ratnam, Parliamentary Leader, Victorian Greens, Medy Hassan OAM from industry, Professor Stuart Green, University of Reading UK, and Victoria Saint, WHO Consultant and Bielefeld University. They debate the fundamentals of current HE relevance all put into context by a DVCR.

Tim Renick has led outstanding student success at Georgia State University for 25 yers. He has achieved improvments in student completions and outcomes, notably across equity groups, that stand apart from achievemens of all other institutions. It is based on a culture based on stepping in to support students, with people and 8 years of use of AI, that responds to sector leading predictive analytics from data. In this episode with Keith Hawkes of Ellucian and I, he outlines how that works, why it is needed, and how GSU now helps many other univerities around the world fulfill an obligation to level the playing field.

The Human Systems group of Paul LeBlanc, George Siemens and Tanya Gambey are exploring the concept of an AI-first university. At a recent event at UTS organised by AWS they were joined by leaders from La Trobe, UNSW, Macquarie and others to explore the concept in an Australian context. Listen to an update on this conversation from the global leaders of this idea and of a range of reactions from those following similar paths or doubting it will make any difference. A chance to satisfy you own curiosity in reflecting on the conversation.

Professor Kerri-Lee Krause was the most recent person to start a new university in Australia. She has now been appointed to chair the panel to advise the minister and regulator on standards in the sector. This follows a career leading learning and education and academic work at Griffith, Victoria, La Trobe and Melbourne universities before establishing Avondale in its university status after having been a graduate many years before. She quotes TS Elliott as not ceasing from exploration and returning to where she started to know the place for the first time.

Chris Hill as APAC CEO reflects on his experience of pioneering new models of private investment and online education globally in roles at Laureate and now Cintana. He describes the background to a new partnership with Ramsay Healthcare and Health Careers International. It outlines how a local provider can work in partnership in allowing the world class experience and expertise of ASU to be brought to bear on the sector ecology of Australian higher education for the benefit of domestic and international student nurses. Sector diversification and new provider models in action.

Professor Rowena Harper, DVC Education of Edith Cowan University is a leading innovator and pioneer in new models of education fit for the emerging technologies and student expectations. She shares ECU experiences in innovation with Jason Lodge of The University of Queensland and I in this episode. She reflects on the current challenges of safeguarding academic integrity in an AI era and how these are systemic issues with the model the sector has developed that require a fundmanetal rethink more than a tweaking of regulations and assessment practices.

Michael Horn was co-founder of the Clayton Christenson Institute and co-authored The Disruptive Class with Clay. In this episode he outlines the difference between sustaining and disruptive innovation and revisits the predictions Clay and he made at the time they were due to come to pass. While a pandemic and accelerated emergence of AI might have tweaked the pace and direction, he sees the closure of 1 college a week in the US and looming financial upheaval in the UK, Australia and elsewhere support his observations of the disruptors he sees around the HE world.

Professor Ken Sloan is Vice Chancellor of Harper Adams University in the UK. He joins the podcast in the first of a series of episodes delivered in a partnership between HEDx and the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils. The series will explore global universities pursuing diverse examples of place-based innovation following earlier episodes with Aleks Subic, Deborah L. Wince-Smith, and Joan Gabel. Ken has honed the Harper Adams approach to rural place-based innovation in the specialist, agricultural setting he is now in from previous experiences at Warwick and Monash universities.

Erin Morley is Education Editor of Campus Review and writes for a higher education staff audience about change and where it is heading. After a year in the role, and as HEDx approaches 4 years of continuous sharing including on the Campus Review platform, Erin and Martin reflect on media and content providers perspective of the stories that currently matter. As HEDx and Campus review increasingly turn to global leaders' ideas, they reflect together on a need for new ideas and less parochial perspectives on the sector as it faces opportunities and changes ahead.

Sir Chris Husbands is former Vice Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and the first Chair of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework. He recently published reports into future implications of generative AI and four scenarios for the future of higher education in England. He sees an acute need for leaders to listen to the dispossessed who miss out on higher education. He argues that complacency and arrogance leaves us at risk of not rethinking a university model in acute need of change to embrace technology, evolve culture and engage communities if HE is to realise its true potential.

Noah Pickus of Duke University and Bryan Penprase of Soka University share insights from their recent book The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century. It describes 8 global case studies of new universities in North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Each have redefined the inherited ritual of what universities do. The book and episode provide lessons for leaders to challenge the conventional university model paradigm using intellectual courage, entrepreneurial audacity and adaptive leadership.

Paulo and Guilherme Silveira are two brothers who co-founded and lead Alura as an integrated set of companies delivering IT skills in Brazil. They do so with support from SEEK Investments whose MD Josh Nester joins me on this episode. Their business spans from state partnerships in K-12, through a university they bought and now operate, to skills provision for alumni lifelong learners, that grow into corporate education for new leaders of businesses. In total they serve more than 2 million learners as a business. The example gives pointers of new revenue and diversification opportunities that others could learn from.

George Siemens of Southern New Hampshire University Human Systems and UniSA has pioneered technology advances in higher education and recent advances in AI. He is now developing for launch an AI-first university together with Paul LeBlanc the former SNHU President. He describes how it would be negligent for Vice Chancellor's and other leaders to ignore AI right now in their plans for the future. As all Australian universities approach the deadline for submitting plans for how they will respond to AI to the regulator. Listen as Jason Lodge of UQ and Martin Betts dissect how he outlines a 7-point action plan arising from a leadership vision based on extreme curiosity.

Jason Lodge of the University of Queensland was a member of a roundtable led from ANU. It was commissioned by the Australian Universities Accord process to question whether the drivers of disruption for our sector made it imminent. Listen to Jason's views from his experience in the learning sciences of how AI and other drivers are changing higher education globally. In this episode we dissect how the Accord has been informed of imminent change and disruption. Has this been kicked down the road along with so much else in the way our visions of the future are being obscured by short term political issues and are ignoring the advances of AI and technology?

Joel di Trapani co-CEO of student support company Vygo co-hosts an episode going out on both HEDx and Vygo's Broken Education podcast platform. Reflecting on shared purpose-driven journeys into higher education roles, Joel and Martin question the challenges facing the sector globally and how technology may provide some solutions for a variety of university types. As the political and funding climate for universities globally reaches crisis point the question of how broken the model of higher education is, and the extent of change and innovation ahead, is being asked of all current providers and learners. Who will provide the answers and how will they go about it is a question posed at the end of the episode.

Ann Sherry AO, Chancellor of QUT and leading Australian business woman, outlines cultural challenges in universities compared to other sectors she has presided over. She sees the need for changed employment practices to align individual and organisational incentives if declining student demand and experiences and troubling financial circumstances are to be overcome. She sees the disruption happening in the sector needing a sharper set of conversations around what universities are, who they serve, and how they need to change what they offer. When asked how serious a university's financial situation is she said "you can't do anything without money and its the absolute focus of her whole council" as it is for more than half of the other Australian universities currently in deficit. She sees a future of fewer universities, partnerships with TAFE and new structures that need to be tested.

Shai Reshef is Founder and President of the University of the People. Founded on the belief that higher education is a basic human right, UoPeople is the first non-profit, tuition-free, American, accredited online university. Dedicated to opening access to higher education globally, UoPeople is designed to help learners overcome financial, geographic, political, and personal constraints keeping them from studies. UoPeople currently serves 137,000 students from over 200 countries. Over 16,500 of these students are refugees. He joins the HEDx podcast in an episode hosted by Martin Betts and Cate Gilpin of Welcoming Universities.