Opinions

Alex Elibank-Murray and Rania Shibl of the University of the Sunshine Coat share experiences of industry partnerships to give work experience to students in fast changing fields. Partnerships with industry partners that include Microsoft, are used to co-design learning experiences that combine certificated and non-certificated university courses with practical skill achievements. In an episode co-hosted by Yasminka Nemet the Future Skills Lead at Microsoft, we explore how tertiary education is changing to achieve harmonisation between further and higher education and co-designed learning and experience opportunities for a new world of work. 

Professor Kylie Readman, DVC Education and Students, University of Technology Sydney, outlines a new venture in global online education. Launching new Mandarin-language online postgraduate education courses to global student markets as a trans-national education strategy is a bold and unique step for an Australian university. In a partnership with Cinlearn, this is distinct and differentiated from the multiple bricks and mortar TNE ventures by Australian and other universities in various Asian and other global countries. it is an example of a university working on adjacencies that go beyond core operations to seek breakthroughs.

John Dewar and Dionne Higgins are experienced leaders of Australian universities now leading a higher education consulting practice at Korda Mentha. They have recently published an annual report showing Australian universities under significant financial pressure to be able to invest in the digital transformation they desperately need. They see it as a time for courageous leadership to cut through the red tape and bureaucracy increasingly stifling the sector. And they see great value in leaders taking inspiration from international pioneers and thinkers like Sir Chris Husbands who they, and others, are helping HEDx bring to Australia later this year.

John Dewar and Dionne Higgins are experienced leaders of Australian universities now leading a higher education consulting practice at Korda Mentha. They have recently published an annual report showing Australian universities under significant financial pressure to be able to invest in the digital transformation they desperately need. They see it as a time for courageous leadership to cut through the red tape and bureaucracy increasingly stifling the sector. And they see great value in leaders taking inspiration from international pioneers and thinkers like Sir Chris Husbands who they, and others, are helping HEDx bring to Australia later this year.

Professor Kristian Widen is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Cooperation and Innovation at Sweden’s industry-engaged Halmstad University, after a distinguished career at its leading research university in Lund. In describing the diverse landscape of a well-funded and stable Swedish university system, he observes that many if its staff and students are happy and calm, including regulators. With little loss of social license they are under little pressure to disrupt. But in his role he is mindful of how this pervaded in Swedish retail and entertainment sectors before Ikea and Spotify emerged. Where will the most likely disruption of global higher education come from, by incumbents or new entrants, and where in the world offers greatest promise to nurture it?

James Cook University VC Simon Biggs highlights AI’s role in personalising learning, widening access for remote communities, and supporting student wellbeing.

Bill Shorten, now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra, calls for lifelong learning, tech-enabled skills pathways, and sector-wide collaboration over competition.

At the Engagement Australia conference, leaders from Universities Australia, Engagement Australia and the Robert Menzies Institute debated the social licence of universities—why it’s been lost, how to regain it, and how success will be measured—following a keynote by UQ Vice-Chancellor Debbie Terry.

Kelly Palmer led global corporate learning at LinkedIn, Degreed, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems. Inspired by the audacious gaols of Silicon Valley, her mission is to change the way the world learns. She has spent a career pursuing that mission in corporate learning settings before bringing the expertise to bear as Chief Strategy Officer at Southern New Hampshire University. She coined the term The Expertise Economy in a book that outlines how learning in the global economy has shifted from degrees or credentials to skills and expertise. The move from ‘what we know’ to ‘what we can do’ is now widespread in a world transformed by AI as Kelly outlined as a keynote in the recent Singapore applied learning conference where we first met.

Soon Joo Gog, Tracey Donnery, Patrick Kidd, and May Sok Mui Lim join the podcast. Skills Future Singapore, SkillsNet Ireland and FSO in Australia are skills initiatives within national tertiary education systems. Ireland has the world’s highest productivity and Singapore ranks second in global competitiveness. As Australia’s competitiveness is challenged by national economic productivity being unchanged in 20 years, should we develop national skills strategy alone or learn from the best? This panel from the recent Applied Learning Conference at Singapore Institute of Technology compares national approaches in Singapore, Ireland and Australia.