Skip to main content

What are universities for and why are they doing it?

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.

Read More

Minerva Project: Changing an outdated higher education model?

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on the measurable outcomes of improved learning being achieved in Minerva University to change what he sees as an outdated higher education model.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?

Read More

HEDx and friends at ASU+GSV

This episode has a panel co-hosted with Joel Di Trapani co-CEO of VYGO. We had a chance in front of 10,000 delegates at the ASU+GSV summit in San Diego recently to lead a discussion on how technology generally and AI in particular is being used to support students in both Australia and the US. With global experts in Linda Brown, David Linke and Candace Sue on our panel we dissected the different approaches to innovation in the two contexts in a live broadcast from the world’s leading gathering of HigherEd tech experts.

Read More

The Great Upheaval in Global Higher Education

Arthur Levine is a scholar of HigherEd with a pedigree that includes working with Clark Kerr and Ernest Boyer at the Carnegie Foundation. He also has experience as a US college president including at Columbia Teacher’s College. In this episode he updates his 2021 book written with Scott van Pelt called The Great Upheaval. He uses analysis of history, forecasts of the future, and lessons from a sideways look at related industries to predict the widespread disruption of global higher education and calls for all global university leaders to heed the message and act to adapt or become irrelevant.

Read More

The issues that arise will be existential

Anthony Finkelstein as VC and President of City University of London explores issues of disruption and transformation facing global universities due to technology ahead of his merger with St George’s University of London on August 1st. He says”if we are able to fulfil the potential of technology we will deliver improved quality of hyper personalised education for lifelong learning and the opportunity is immense and for the good. We just need to do something about it.”

Read More

The story of Torrens 1.0 and other new business models

Linda Brown CEO and Alwyn Louw tell the story of Torrens University Australia 1.0 on stage at the HEDx conference in Melbourne in March and its incredible growth as a private American-owned Corp to become Australia’s fastest growing university. And are followed by Nora Koslowski, Will Stubley, Kat Page, Omar de Silva and David Yip exploring how the nature of work and skills needs have changed and call for new business models of lifelong learning provision to emerge alongside our public and private universities in global lifelong learning markets. What will the more diverse future world of lifelong learning look like?

Read More

Where can technology take us and how can we harness it?

Joshua Nester as MD of SEEK Investments gives a global overview of investments being made in private universities, EdTech companies, and in OPMs and content aggregators. He outlines how this is changing the competitive landscape of global higher Ed. He is then followed by Sue Kokonis as Chief Academic Officer of OES leading a panel at the recent HEDx conference that includes David Linke the CEO of Edugrowth, Manuela Franceschini Pedagogical Evangelist of Adobe, Sherman Young DVC of RMIT and Eric Knight, Dean of the Macquarie Business School. How will technology change higher education for good?

Read More

Keynote by President Michael Crow of ASU at HEDx

President Michael Crow of Arizona State University shares his vision of a university accelerating towards social justice through excellence rather than seeking status through exclusivity. He is followed by Paul Harpur of UQ, Marcia Devlin of VATL, Joel di Trapani of Vygo, Cate Gilpin of Welcoming Universities and Mohamed Omer of Melbourne University all dissecting issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. An episode that makes clear a call for action and the need for us all to be the change we want to see in higher education. “The university” is us, and we can all change it for good, and now.

Read More

Time for getting on with the job in hand

David Lloyd as Chair of UA and VC of UniSA gives this keynote presentation to the first session of the HEDx conference calling for action now from the sector ahead of finalisation of a government response to the Accord. A message echoed in a panel made up of VCs Andrew Parfitt and Helen Bartlett of UTS and UniSC and DVCs Jessica Vanderlelie and Kent Anderson of La Trobe and Newcastle. Hear the keynote and the leaders’ panel at the March 21st HEDx conference as the most comprehensive considered reactions to our landmark policy report are aired at a sector-wide event in Melbourne.

Read More