Disruption Through Connections Conference
This week’s podbite follows 3 major milestones of Annabel Murphy becoming the first HEDx FT employee, the launch of the Sydney June event program, and the kick off of new AI sandbox projects with collaborators in the UK, US and Australia. Get a summary with this 3 minute overview from the new HEDx offices in Brisbane.
Most PhDs are built on original ideas and critical thinking—so what happens when AI enters the equation? On this episode of the HEDx Student Experience Podcast, three researchers confront the daunting yet exciting challenges AI poses to research integrity, authorship, and the very core of scholarly originality.
Join HEDx Associate Sharon Saunders as she hosts an expert-driven discussion about how AI tools are already reshaping doctoral work across disciplines. Discover how AI influences research practices, the importance of balancing AI-assisted productivity with critical thinking, and the ethical dilemmas around authorship in an AI-enabled world. Perfect for doctoral candidates, research supervisors, and policymakers, this episode offers vital insights into navigating AI’s complex landscape.
The panel brings together diverse perspectives from across the sector all united by a shared belief in the power of asking better questions and truly listening to students. Together, they explore why student voice matters and how meaningful dialogue can shape the future of higher education.
This episode reflects on what members in UTS and USyd are bringing to the next HEDx event. It follows meetings making plans for workshops on collective intelligence, AI agents for HEDx content, and the further development of the Castlereagh Statement. And it gives updates on what partners notably MCDS, AWS, Salesforce and many others are collaborating on for shared standards and human capability records to increase equity of access for lifelong learners. This is set in the context of great charitable work to support recovery for victims of domestic violence and sufferers of eating disorders on the Sunshine Coast as we all reflect of what we all do this for. For many of us, it’s not for the money .
This episode is from a site visit to the Wyndham Tech School in Werribee. A tour of a real tertiary harmonisation centre of excellence with Director Sam Nikolsky and VU’s newly appointed Chief Transformation Officer Gail Bray. In the presence of some of the many thousands of students who get to have their curiosity sparked by a place that comes alive as you go through the front door, this is a great example of STEM and tech study aspiration-building in action. And it is set in the context of wider VU and sector-wide tertiary harmonisation strategies by Senior DVC and Chief Academic Officer John Germov of VU and CEO Patrick Kidd of FSO. A very good place.
This episode explores the evolving landscape of the sector, offering insights, questions, and perspectives from those at the forefront of teaching and learning.
Professor Kelly Matthews steps in to host a special Teaching and Education Focused Academics (TEFA) Network conversation. Academics from across Australia come together to speak with Professor Barney Glover, Acting Chief Commissioner of the new national body shaping the future of higher education.
This episode explores the evolving landscape of the sector, offering insights, questions, and perspectives from those at the forefront of teaching and learning.
Professor Lucy Marshall is DVC of Community and Leadership at University of Sydney. In this episode she joins Peter Chun as CEO of UniSuper to explore the comparative issues of culture, change management and staff wellbeing between academic and commercial organisations. The transformation and disruption facing the sector, and the rapid emergence of AI and changing market demands, are adding to the loss of social license in making universities tough places to be. Stabilising workplace culture as a prerequisite to leading change and caring for staff wellbeing makes tough calls on leaders which this episode explores.
Hosted by Kelly Matthews, with contributions from Martin Betts, the episode also features insights from David Turvey PSM (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) and Jonathan Davey (CEO, Online Education Services).
The panel brings together diverse perspectives from across the sector all united by a shared belief in the power of asking better questions and truly listening to students. Together, they explore why student voice matters and how meaningful dialogue can shape the future of higher education.
A weekly reflection on UK Vice-Chancellor visits and a new UK–Australia collaboration with Rose Luckin and EDUCATE Ventures Research, launching innovation coalitions to explore AI in higher education—enhancing student experience, pathways, and social licence.
Grant Robertson looks up and out 18 months in as Otago VC. As former Deputy PM of NZ he returns to where he studied and worked in research commercialisation, to lead change in a traditional research-intensive university. As a non-academic VC he reflects on his views as a past-President of the Otago Student Union and a 5 page letter he wrote of what was wrong with universities. He shares experience from the heart of government in how universities are perceived and what they need to do about it. And he reflects on his strategic focus of leading his colleagues to look up to a higher aspiration for students and communities, and out to broader global best practice, to both drive the change he sees is needed.
