UNE's AI Shake-Up: A Regional Uni Redefining the Rules?

In this episode, Ray sits down with Aaron Driver, Director of LabNext70 at the University of New England (UNE), a regional Australian university making one of the boldest moves in higher education: giving every staff member and every student access to a full enterprise AI platform.

Aaron shares how UNE has built Madgwick, its white-labelled version of the SIMTheory AI platform, and why the university chose to go beyond standard tools like Copilot or ChatGPT for Education. With multi-model access, MCP connectors, and soon agentic capabilities, UNE staff have already created more than 3,000 AI assistants and reached an extraordinary 85% daily usage rate.

The conversation dives into UNE's four big reasons for giving AI to all students - safety, job readiness, equity, and privacy - and how this move positions graduates for a job market where AI capability is no longer optional.

Aaron also lifts the curtain on UNE's rapid cultural transformation, their sector-leading AI literacy programs, and the regional impact they hope to create by becoming Australia's most AI-enabled university.

A fascinating look at a university rewriting the rulebook in real time.

Bonus Links

Aaron mentioned the SIMTheory Academy that his team runs, and recommended the free AI Quick Wins course for a good overview of what SIM Theory can do