Opinions

George WIlliams AO is the new VC of Western Sydney University. He argues that we show our values by what we do and who we fight for. He sees that as the way to recover lost social licence for universities that more than half the population do not think positively of. The starting point in response is to recognise we have a problem. While we think we are valuable, the public do not. There is a compelling need to change, to focus on students, to embrace community, and to partner and use technology to meet students where they are, not where we want them to be.

David Stofenmacher is the purpose-driven founder and CEO of Mexican private university UTEL and established a global education company Scala partnering with multiple Latin American universities to teach 120,000 students. He joins Josh Nester MD of Seek Investments and Martin to describe his mission to provide a ROI within 2 years for all learners. He illustrates how a HigherEd entrepreneur needs patience and be prepared to learn and change every day. He illustrates the importance of staying true to mission, being single-minded about his why, and focus on opportunities not constraints.

Sam Jacob CEO of Collarts epitomises diversity in tertiary education, after a varied public and private university experience. They make a case for a teacher-centric tertiary education system to achieve student-centric experiences and that multiple provider models in the ecosystem is the best way to achieve this. In an interview with Professor Christy Collis, President-Elect of HERDSA and Martin Betts, they show few people in public universities have much understanding of the private and VET sector and how it works. This is a chance to find out.

Professor Kerry London, DVC Research at Torrens University Australia, leads a debate of global sector leaders on the state of higher education and its ability to innovate to face challenges and remain relevant to stakeholders. She is joined by Torrens colleagues in VC Professor Alwyn Louw, Associate Professor Clare Littleton, Dr Claire Davidson, and Professor Matthew Mundy. And by Dr Samantha Ratnam, Parliamentary Leader, Victorian Greens, Medy Hassan OAM from industry, Professor Stuart Green, University of Reading UK, and Victoria Saint, WHO Consultant and Bielefeld University. They debate the fundamentals of current HE relevance all put into context by a DVCR.

Tim Renick has led outstanding student success at Georgia State University for 25 yers. He has achieved improvments in student completions and outcomes, notably across equity groups, that stand apart from achievemens of all other institutions. It is based on a culture based on stepping in to support students, with people and 8 years of use of AI, that responds to sector leading predictive analytics from data. In this episode with Keith Hawkes of Ellucian and I, he outlines how that works, why it is needed, and how GSU now helps many other univerities around the world fulfill an obligation to level the playing field.

Professor Kerri-Lee Krause was the most recent person to start a new university in Australia. She has now been appointed to chair the panel to advise the minister and regulator on standards in the sector. This follows a career leading learning and education and academic work at Griffith, Victoria, La Trobe and Melbourne universities before establishing Avondale in its university status after having been a graduate many years before. She quotes TS Eliott as not ceasing from exploration and returning to where she started to know the place for the first time.

Chris Hill as APAC CEO reflects on his experience of pioneering new models of private investment and online education globally in roles at Laureate and now Cintana. He describes the background to a new partnership with Ramsay Healthcare and Health Careers International. It outlines how a local provider can work in partnership in allowing the world class experience and expertise of ASU to be brought to bear on the sector ecology of Australian higher education for the benefit of domestic and international student nurses. Sector diversification and new provider models in action.

Professor Rowena Harper, DVC Education of Edith Cowan University is a leading innovator and pioneer in new models of education fit for the emerging technologies and student expectations. She shares ECU experiences in innovation with Jason Lodge of The University of Queensland and I in this episode. She reflects on the current challenges of safeguarding academic integrity in an AI era and how these are systemic issues with the model the sector has developed that require a fundmanetal rethink more than a tweaking of regulations and assessment practices.

Michael Horn was co-founder of the Clayton Christenson Institute and co-authored The Disruptive Class with Clay. In this episode he outlines the difference between sustaining and disruptive innovation and revisits the predictions Clay and he made at the time they were due to come to pass. While a pandemic and accelerated emergence of AI might have tweaked the pace and direction, he sees the closure of 1 college a week in the US and looming financial upheaval in the UK, Australia and elsewhere support his observations of the disruptors he sees around the HE world.

Professor Ken Sloan is Vice Chancellor of Harper Adams University in the UK. He joins the podcast in the first of a series of episodes delivered in a partnership between HEDx and the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils. The series will explore global universities pursuing diverse examples of place-based innovation following earlier episodes with Aleks Subic, Deborah L. Wince-Smith, and Joan Gabel. Ken has honed the Harper Adams approach to rural place-based innovation in the specialist, agricultural setting he is now in from previous experiences at Warwick and Monash universities.