Opinions

Sabih Bin Wasi is the Founder & CEO of Stellic. He brings his lived experience as a recent graduate in design thinking and AI at Carnegie Mellon University to his design of student systems that imnprove student engagement and experience. He does so through STellic named after one of his professor’s as an integrated EdTech platform that brings together academic planning, advising, scheduling, and data analytics. The platform was designed to empower students and improve their
experience when navigating their journey towards graduation. Some investors are quoted as saying “There’s no way these kids can work out the complexity of HE”. Josh Nester of SEEK Investment has another view he shares on this episode.

A final episode from the Future Solutions conference has Kelly Mathews of UQ join me to reflect on the panel she led of data from 8000+ Australian HE students surveyed by the AI in HE project about AI use. And it has two of its DVCA sponsors in Kylie Readman of UTS and Liz Johnson of Deakin, joined by George Williams of WSU, Linda Brown of Torrens and Katie Ford of Microsoft as the sector considers how it will respond to the challenges and opportunities of AI. An overwhelming call to partner with students, the tech company eco-system and each other. Are we brave enough to get out of our lane?

Recent and future hosts of HEDx Conferences are Professors Kris Ryan DVC A of UQ and Jessica Vanderlelie DVC A of La Trobe. A fireside chat with them had them comment on the impact on equity of AI strategies. These are explored by a panel at Future Solutions led by Shamit Saggar of ACSES joined by colleague Ian Li and equity experts in Kylie Austin of EPHEA, Paul Harpur of UQ and Lyndin Francis of Vygo. As Jessica says “equity isn’t just a priority, its the foundation of a future ready university” meaning the implications of AI advances are critical.

Professors Jessica Vanderlelie, Allie Clemens and Rorden Wilkinson as DVCAs of La Trobe, Monash and Macquarie join the podcast to reflect on the impact of AI on the future of education. As a panel at the Microsoft HE Summit they share with Katie Ford and I a response to a provocation by George Siemens of what an AI-first university means. Changes to teaching and assessment mean the days of being a content business is over. They point to leadership, vision, culture and commitment to implementation are key to using AI to respond to current system challenges as the way forward for universities.

This episode showcases innovation from beyond public universities into the tertiary system including in innovative partnerships involving employers, global universities and private providers. It also demonstrates how partnerships with network, employer and tech companies can allow tertiary providers to thrive. Christy Collis is joined by Kerri-Lee Krause, Sam Jacob, Scott Luckett and Bijo Kunnumpurath in a panel for diversity and Guy Littlefair leads Alex Elibank-Murray, May Lim, Tash Stoeckel and Tim Burt in a panel on partnerships in two further excerpts from the recent HEDx conference at UQ.

Debbie Terry of The University of Queensland joins fellow VCs John Dewar, Helen Bartlett, Simon Biggs and Chris Moran. They respond to a provocation by Ann Kirschner of City University of New York of the need to innovate to regain social licence and serve student needs. In welcomes and an opening panel at the recent HEDx conference, these 6 public university leaders outline the need to and the form of innovation that can respond to the challenges facing the sector at a time of unprecedented challenge that creates great opportunity. They join Kelly Mathews of UQ and I in a scene setter to the recent HEDx conference at UQ.

Marc Washbourne has been founder and CEO of ReadyTech for 25 years. His personal agility has seen him grow a leading tech company of 600+ staff and named 2024 EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. He leads into the IT skills and edtech sectors through board roles with HEDx partners the Future Skills Organisation and Year13. As a user of AI, employer of graduates, and developer of lifelong learners, Marc has a keen eye for what is needed in tertiary education and its relationship with skills, employers and future learners. His keyword is agility and he offers an agile view of where AI is taking learning to complement those from leaders, edtech providers and students. We need continuous 360 views of the changes AI is bringing to skills and learning to remain relevant.

Scott Jones leads Navitas as Group CEO after more than 20 years working for this private provider in partnerships with public universities. The growth in student numbers for a future workforce, that achieves social inclusion among equity groups, needs responses beyond endless growth of public universities with comprehensive discipline offerings and research. This time of opportunity for small specialist providers, teaching only institutions and new investment in public/private partnerships, is vital if an affordable model of growth is to be achieved. Scott joins Christy Collis President-elect of HERDSA and I for a conversation about sector diversity.

Ulrik Juul Chistensen is the Danish founder of the Area 9 group of learning technology companies working in partnership with VitalSource. In this episode he outlines theories of achieving mastery through adaptive learning techniques supported by technology. He sees the number one challenge for global higher education providers to be working out how to prepare students to ask the right intelligent questions not only provide knowledge to intelligent students to have all the right answers.