November 2025

Sir Chris Husbands former VC of Sheffield Hallam University and founding chair of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework joins Professor Helen Bartlett VC of University of the Sunshine Coast. They were on stage at HEDx at UQ for an opening keynote and fireside chat that dissects the global issues facing higher education. They argue the clear need to identify purpose, implement that purpose clearly and consistently, and be ever vigilant to ongoing change in leading our communities through turbulent times. Sir Chris and Helen both emphasise the importance of being distinctive and following your own true path in doing that. They observe many members of our community do this effectively every day.

Ian Oppermann is Chair of Data Standards for the Commonwealth and Industry Professor at UTS. From a lifetime in AI and driving technology to serve the needs of consumers and their data rights, he is partnering with Charlsey Pearce of the Mortar CAP data standard. They led a sector workshop at AWS in Sydney recently of sector representatives jointly crafting a white paper to guide improved data stanrads to serve the needs of lifelong learners in a harmonised tertiary education system. They reflect on the workshop and the issues it addressed before bringing its progress to a workshop at the HEDx event on November 5.