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Global best-practice in skills-based lifelong learning

A/Prof May Lim Sok Mui is Assistant Provost of Applied Learning at Singapore Institute of Technology. She pioneers a coaching approach to competency-based education in Singapore’s fifth and most distinct university from a new campus in Punggol. She leads work into the Skills Future Singapore lifelong learning collaboration between providers, government and industry. Shortly before leaving for a global study tour to UNESCO and EU partners she joined an episode with Patrick Kidd CEO of Future Skills Organisation and I to reflect on the move to a skills agenda so vital for global lifelong learning and a strong theme at the forthcoming HEDx conference on April 2nd.

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Pre-reading for April 2nd Conference

We have designed this interactive and engaging day of activities to be focused on a coherent program of discussions around an integrated set of themes about Higher Education in the Age of AI. Our intention is that your engagement and collaboration with others on the day will help you identify clear actions that you can take to progress the readiness of your institution at this time. We have designed the event to allow you to engage in advance with a curated suite of resources that arise from our engagement as HEDx with speakers there on the day, and other best practice leaders.

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Never waste a crisis: how universities remain relevant

Lev Gonick the CIO of Arizona State University and Dave Rosowsky Senior Advisor to President Michael Crow are colleagues at the world’s most innovative university. They share their belief that universities can remain relevant by choosing how and why they embrace AI technology. They tell the story of how ASU has done so through bold leadership and culture, a fast clock speed, a commitment to experiment relentlessly, and 300-400 partnerships with technology companies that go beyond a procurement relationship. Ahead of Lev joining HEDx on stage in Melbourne in April they foreshadow lessons others might heed from their experience as we all ‘do the work” to ‘change the model’.

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Where is the jagged frontier for AI in HE?

Phil Laufenberg is Head of Artificial Intelligence at Macquarie University. His career already spans three continents, and traversing startups in technology companies to executive responsibilities in a public university. He sees a future of AI-enabled universities based on technology accelerating accessible education for all. He is committed to universities pushing the boundaries of jagged frontiers in partnerships with technology companies. He is interviewed in this episode with his friend and tech partner Nils de Vries of Amazon Web Services. Learn about the 4 use cases that have emerged from exploring 50 potential applications at Macquarie University in this episode.

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Equity and wellbeing: keys to sustainability

Sarah Bendall of the National Student Ombudsman office, George Williams VC of WSU, Shamit Saggar of ACSES, Paul Harpur of UQ and Hashini Panditharatne of the Australian Human Rights Commission join Cate Gilpin and I in a satellite panel event at the Universities Australia solutions summit. They dissect how we can reframe equity issues and responses to make higher education providers sustainable and thriving. It requires us accepting we are the problem, listening to students, and bringing about culture change as a basis for redesigned processes enabled by technology. Let’s do it.

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What happened at the UA Solutions Summit?

Simon Biggs of JCU, Kris Ryan and Suzanne Le Mire of UQ and Alphia Possamai-Inesedy of WSU reflect on what they heard in Canberra this week and what it means. Sue Cunningham of CASE and Joe Avison in a personal capacity put it into global context. And tech leaders Nicola Cresp of OES, Katie Ford of Microsoft, Joel di Trapani of Vygo, Charlsey Pearce of MortarCAPS and Mark Sampson of Cenote Solutions see opportunities for tech to deliver the equity all sides of politics are calling for. Time for action now the talking is over.

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Everyone loves equity until it hurts

Professor Damon Salesa is Vice-Chancellor of Auckland University of Technology. He is the first and only Indigenous VC of any university in Australia or New Zealand. A strong sense of commitment to community makes AUT the most likely of places to lead in this way. Damon sets out views of place-based innovation entirely appropriate to a context in South Auckland, at AUT, with a strong sense of its place in NZ and a Pacific Ocean forming a third of the planet. I analyse an interview with him with Veronica Pritchard, Program Director of The Queensland Commitment at UQ after work at NZ TEC. Multiple lessons from international perspectives to drive equity changes we have to make.

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How many international students does Australia need?

Dr Abul Rizvi is former Deputy Secretary of the departments of Immigration and Communtcation. He has a PhD in Immigration Policy from Melbourne and came to Australia as part of a migrant academic family. More than anyone, he sees the link between migration and international education from lived experience, professional expertise and scholarship. He argues, in an episode recorded with Cate Gilpin and I, for Australia to set targets for migration based on long term planning in an era of forthcoming population decline of young people from falling birth rates. And to build migration and higher education policies around that bigger need. He argues the current situation of leaving migrants and students in visa ‘no-mans-land’ is unjust.

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Caring for students

Sarah Bendall as the new First Assistant Ombudsman in the Office of the National Student Ombudsman has a passion for resolving complaints. Six days into this new role she outlines the background to the office and role, and how she plans to provide a route for students to ensure they have a safe, fair and secure experience, and hold universities to account. In a conversation with Cate Gilpin of Welcoming Universities she outlines the short term priorities and long term vision for a key plank of the Universities Accord and the most significant step in caring for students the sector has seen.

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It’s the hope that kills you

What could stop change in higher education is holding on to the hope that, what we have always done will all work out alright. It comes from seeing political change as making it too hard. From technology change as being something to fear and too over-whelming. Or it comes from a post-COVID hope that some green shoots of increased demand mean all is going back to what it was, and we don’t need to change. It isn’t, We do. We will die otherwise.

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