August 2025

Professor Kristian Widen is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Cooperation and Innovation at Sweden’s industry-engaged Halmstad University, after a distinguished career at its leading research university in Lund. In describing the diverse landscape of a well-funded and stable Swedish university system, he observes that many if its staff and students are happy and calm, including regulators. With little loss of social license they are under little pressure to disrupt. But in his role he is mindful of how this pervaded in Swedish retail and entertainment sectors before Ikea and Spotify emerged. Where will the most likely disruption of global higher education come from, by incumbents or new entrants, and where in the world offers greatest promise to nurture it?

James Cook University VC Simon Biggs highlights AI’s role in personalising learning, widening access for remote communities, and supporting student wellbeing.

Bill Shorten, now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra, calls for lifelong learning, tech-enabled skills pathways, and sector-wide collaboration over competition.

At the Engagement Australia conference, leaders from Universities Australia, Engagement Australia and the Robert Menzies Institute debated the social licence of universities—why it’s been lost, how to regain it, and how success will be measured—following a keynote by UQ Vice-Chancellor Debbie Terry.