Changing higher education for good
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Sasha Thackaberry is Founder and President of the newly launched Newstate university. As a competency-based, stackable, subscription price-model, online university, all of its courses are about AI. And it extensively uses AI in curation and delivery of content and the support of its first cohort of students that is commencing on July 1st. Demonstrating the values of agility that overcome the barriers of incumbency, this is disruptive innovation in action.
Kelly Matthews of UQ takes control of the mic as a guest host joined by Tim Fawns of Monash and Stephen George-Williams of the University of Sydney. They pose the questions to two giants of Australian student centred thinking who are both teaching focused leaders. Kylie Readman of UTS and Liz Johnson of Deakin have pioneered how to put students first way before it became so fashionable. They share lessons of leadership that are invaluable for those making their way in academic life in this area of great staff opportunity.
Danny Liu of the University of Sydney argues that AI makes us question not only how, but why we teach. He joins a panel that includes Susan Zhang of La Trobe, Phil Laufenberg of Macquarie and Jason Lodge of UQ. They answer questions from Sam Jacob CEO of Collarts that drive at the heart of where AI is taking tertiary education. Sam summarises a day of HEDx experts in one minute to demonstrate the Collarts manifesto of how creativity is a powerful difference, that comes from being inclusive by choice, in telling stories that change the world.
Lev Gonick is CIO of the most innovative university in the US at Arizona State. He outlines the part technology has played in the 20+ year of transformation that created a global entrepreneurial pioneer from a party-town college in the desert. In this fireside chat with Manuela Franceschini of Adobe, he reflects on what he wished he had known at the start of their journey and what his dreams of the impossible are now. He says universities like his, driven by access and public service, owe it to their graduating students to equip them for a new AI economy. He shares how their experience is guiding Shainal Kavar as CIO in Australia’s AI-first La Trobe University.
Theo Farrell as Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University has a vision for agentic AI to serve the lifecycle needs of all students. Why this would solve student complaints is outlined by Sarah Bendall as Student Ombudsman sharing data from the first 2 months of the office. It needs a stable platform of data made interoperable by sector defined data standards as argued by Gemma Cadby of ACSES and Charlsey Pearce of MortarCAPS. Will Stubley of Year13 illustrates how this is already in place for students choosing personalised school to work pathways.
HEDx held its most recent conference at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne on April 2nd. We designed a day of activities focused on discussions about Higher Education in the Age of AI. Our plan was for collaborative engagement by more than 200 leaders to identify actions needed to progress change needed by individuals, institutions, and the wider sector.
Dr Tim Renick of Georgia State and George Williams VC at Western Sydney are two pioneering leaders and champions of student success on the global stage. They share thoughts and perspectives from the stage at HEDx in Melbourne in a fireside chat with Veronica Pritchard of the Queensland Commitment at UQ. It argues for us getting out of our comfort zones and using AI to overcome process barriers, letting staff do human work to help students in distress. It is followed by an update from the AI in HE project where Michael Henderson of Monash and Margaret Bearman share updates of what students think of it being AI or teachers giving feedback on their learning.
Melinda Cilento as CEO of CEDA leads the national conversation for a shared plan towards Progress 2050. It has pillars of productivity and innovation and the knowledge and skills our future workforce need. In this fireside chat with Patrick Kidd CEO of the Future Skills Organisation she questions if higher education is changing fast enough and keeping up with the world around it. It provides a backdrop to a panel discussion involving Megan Lilly of Jobs and Skills Australia, Sally Curtain of Bendigo Kangan Institute, Yasminka Nemet of Microsoft and Colin Gneil of LinkedIn to explore how we can keep up with the speed of change in skills needs in an Age of AI and how a harmonised tertiary sector will help.
