May 2024

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.

Professor Joan Gabel is the Chancellor of University of Pittsburgh. She joins the HEDx podcast to outline how a leading US research powerhouse from the rust belt is engaging with technology and industry partners to drive learning and innovation. Her university plays a lead role in the Global Forum of Competitiveness Councils. She argues that eventually we are not going to talk about what we will do with AI anymore. It will be as absurd as asking what we are going to do with the internet. Her view of the prospects of universities is that if we look a few years in the future we will see survivors of online providers and some campus based places that will close. She sees that there’s a limit to how much people will pay and how long it takes. The market will insist on greater efficiency and she is exploring a “PIttforce” skills program to meet that need.

Deputy Vice Chancellor Deborah Johnston MBE of London South Bank University and graduate of SOAS and Cambridge University asks these big questions with Paul Harpur OAM of UQ and I. She argues that universities with a mission for social mobility are better placed to serve our more inclusive skills-based agenda. But they need to have the courage to stand out from the crowd, be freed from excessive regulation, and be measured for what they are good for more than what they are good at.

Minerva Founder Ben Nelson outlines the work that builds on the measurable outcomes of improved learning being achieved in Minerva University to change what he sees as an outdated higher education model. He argues that  the current higher education approach has students cram, pass and forget the knowledge they have gained from what we all know to be failed educational processes and curricula. Minerva University seeks to teach diverse students to learn and Minerva Project seeks to scale that model in transforming a 1000 year old university model over a 50 year period of change. What do you think of this model and where progress is up to?