It is widely understood that global tertiary education faces unprecedented pressure. Demand never softened as quickly, finances were never more challenged, public and government support never so low, and technology and geo-politics never as confronting.

Many institutions are scrambling, distracted by policy changes that prevents them from engaging in longer-term transition. Regulators are playing catch up with technology and culture change. No-one is doing enough to change higher education for good.

HEDx has spent four years reflecting on the nature of these problems with global leaders. The time is ripe for collaborative and innovative effort, freed of policy and short-sighted constraints, to do something about it. That is what HEDx will focus on in 2025.

A summary of the biggest HEDx event to date

This edition of the newsletter is co-authored with Professor Kelly Matthews, Interim PVC of Teaching and Learning at The University of Queensland. It outlines an agenda for change that arises from analysis of engagement at the HEDx Future Solutions Event at UQ in October. It summarises collective participative engagement from:

Given HEDx’s commitment to regular conferences and constant improvement, Kelly Mathews has trained a HEDx Conference Engagement Analysis model built on top of OpenAI. Leveraging this model HEDx is able to elicit themes and generate an action plan. The outcomes are consistent with 4 years of commentary by HEDx and others. There is a collective frustration that talking about this is no longer enough. We either do something about it, or pull up stumps. We plan to do something about it and invite others to join in.

Walking the talk

One day of almost 500 people reflecting is so much easier to analyse in the age of GenAI than 4 years ago as Kelly’s analysis here shows. Doing this to the questions posed in Slido at the HEDx event generated key questions being asked of the sector of:

1. What actions can providers take to reimagine their purpose and role in society and align more closely with community and societal needs?
2. How can providers reconcile their mission to advance and share human knowledge with the ethical challenges presented by certain technologies?
3. In a rapidly changing job market, how can providers ensure that diverse learners and graduates are equipped with skills that meet evolving workforce demands?
4. How can providers better address non-completion and the mental health crisis, particularly the issues of loneliness and well-being among students and their staff?
5. What practical steps can providers implement to move from dialogue to action on these critical issues, ensuring real, measurable impact?

The top audience engagement and speaker themes.

These 5 questions align closely with the topics and themes discussed by the 35 speakers at the event. The section below shows the connections, themes from what speakers said, how the audience engaged, and how the HEDx network can now respond to these questions.

1. Redefining Providers’ Role and Purpose:

Universities and other tertiary providers need to redefine their purpose to be more impactful in society and better aligned with community and industry needs. Questions about the evolving role of providers align with discussions led by Vice-Chancellors and other sector leaders. Speakers advocated for the need to redefine mission, maintain public trust, and serve broader societal needs—these are the same questions of participants asked at the event about impact and alignment with community expectations. Leaders are under severe and increasing pressure as they grapple with what it now means to learn and be competent.

“We increasingly need to focus on what our universities are good for and not only what we claim to be good at” – Professor George Williams, Vice-Chancellor of Western Sydney University

2. AI Opportunities and Integrity in Education:

Questions challenged how providers makes the most positive and beneficial use of AI and also balance the advancing and teaching of human knowledge with operational practices in the use of new technology. Many questions touched on AI’s role in education and research and the importance of balancing technological integration and advancement with academic and research integrity. This theme was addressed in the panels on AI, where speakers discussed the abundant opportunities from responsible AI use, and its balance with ethical considerations, and preparing students for an AI-driven world, and the opportunity it presents to fill gaps in the education experience and improve outcomes for all.

3. Skills Alignment with Industry:

Discussion highlighted the demand for providers to better and more quickly adapt their curriculum and student support to meet fast-evolving industry requirements. Questions were asked of how providers can better prepare diverse students for the workforce through a more integrated tertiary education sector. Speakers raised the importance of partnerships with industry and adapting curriculum more rapidly to meet future skills needs. This aligns with questions about bridging gaps between academic programs and real-world demands, with speakers stating how sector diversity and collaboration with industry could achieve this.

“The nature of jobs will be unrecognisable in 5 years because of AI, yet it takes most providers 7 years to change a course” – Tash Stoeckel, LinkedIn ANZ Higher Education Lead

4. Support for student success for increasingly diverse students and staff:

Questions about supporting students to complete their studies and addressing their mental health and well-being by addressing the loneliness epidemic among young people were highly upvoted. In comments, event participants expressed a strong interest in this and in fostering community. This links to speakers who emphasised the importance of supporting the whole student and staff experience. Themes of student and staff experience and connection, community, and well-being were seen as crucial to a holistic university experience and vital for improved completion by increasingly indebted students. The importance of data and technology to allow predictive analytics achieve it was pronounced.

“Equity isn’t just a priority, it’s the foundation of a future ready university” – Professor Jessica Vanderlelie, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic of La Trobe University

5. From Conversation to Action:

The conference sought strategies for the sector to move from discussion to implementation. Many questions made a call to move to practical action. This links directly to panel comments where speakers emphasised the importance of not only envisioning change but implementing it in impactful and measurable ways.

“We need to get out of our own lane and partner with new groups. Those playing it safe will be left behind.” – Linda Brown, CEO of Torrens University Australia

Plan for Turning Ideas into Action that HEDx can support

This analysis has led us to develop detailed action plans for four key project ideas:

Project 1. Co-design Labs: Academic Integrity in the age of Artificial Intelligence

Objective: The next phase of the AI in HE project will target innovative Co-Design Labs that bring together students, staff, and industry to collaboratively create resources, frameworks, and strategies for AI in education. Three topics are proposed: integrity, equity, and feedback. These labs and the conversations they stimulate will also (1) generate further research data for analysis, and (2) design concepts that could be explored in AI design and coding hackathons, depending on stakeholder interest and resources.

Next Steps: Partner with the AI in HE project to define the hackathons and co-design workshop structure and objectives to allow directly giving students a voice in changing higher education for good.

Outcomes and Benefits: Innovative solutions to persistent sector operational and student experience challenges, with measurable improvements to both student experience and financial sustainability, fostering a culture of collaborative innovation within the sector.

Project 2. Future Skills Initiatives

Objective: Brainstorm methods for future skills modelling and pilot new collaborative approaches to learning provision across an integrated and diverse tertiary sector.

Next Steps: Collaboration of skills agencies, network organisations, technology companies and tertiary providers to harness and promote more widely comprehensive AI skills needs and solutions initiatives across pathways from multiple providers in a diverse tertiary sector.

Outcomes and Benefits: Improved alignment of education with industry needs, leading to more relevant courses and better graduate employability outcomes increasing completion rates and reversing declines in demand and revenue for tertiary education.

Project 3. A Data Driven Equity Student and Staff Support Initiative

Objective: Enhance data-driven and AI-enabled student and staff support systems to improve retention rates and mental health and wellbeing among equity students and staff.

Next Steps: Work with providers, student support EdTech companies, equity agencies, global best practice providers and other stakeholders to outline scope and required resources to harness and promote existing initiatives more broadly.

Outcomes and Benefits: Higher completion rates, increased student satisfaction, improved student and staff wellbeing and increased inclusivity and measurable progress towards Universities Accord equity goals. This is the most direct way of increasing revenue to the sector with evidence from GSU and NISS of achievable goals and outcomes. And it is a vital component of regaining social licence by demonstrating care for staff in the sector.

Project 4. HEDx Future Events and Podcast Themes

Objective: Develop HEDx podcasts and events to update stakeholders on progress in these and other future emerging issues and stimulate further ongoing collaborative innovation.

Next Steps: Engage with HEDx partners in events and podcast episodes to plan content, secure speakers and guests, and promote events and content.

Outcomes and Benefits: Increased engagement, knowledge sharing, and momentum in key HEDx KPIs of audience and event attendance and engagement and member and partner renewals, as the network moves measurably towards achieving shared goals for the sector in reversing demand decline, increasing retention and relevance of skills, improving public affinity, and easing financial challenges to the sector.

The HEDx action agenda for change

The outcomes of analysis of widespread engagement at the largest HEDx gathering to date, are this action agenda of 4 collaborative sector-wide projects. They have the potential to advance innovation against key issues that emerge from 35 speakers and 500 participants brainstorming what the sector needs to do next. They collectively address the need for tertiary education providers to recover lost social licence and demonstrate a purpose of what they are good for.

HEDx in its mission of seeking to change higher education for good commits to focussing in the foreseeable future on aligning its work in content and thought leadership to project 4 and to working with its members, partners and interested others to see that projects 1-3 are advanced and outcomes from them shared and promoted at future HEDx events and in future podcasts. They are the sector being positive about the future, taking responsibility.

As HEDx members and partners plan their engagement with HEDx activities in 2025, and as others join the journey of changing higher education for good, the leadership, participation, resourcing, commitment and adoption of these 4 projects is called for by all. The sector and global partners are welcomed to join in on these actions for change.