HEDx

Michael Fung as Director of the Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico, is the architect of the Skills Future lifelong learning strategy in Singapore.  He shares thoughts on the global move towards lifelong learning and a competency based approach to the future of higher education and its relevance to the Australian Universities Accord. He shares lessons that are vital for us to hear in shaping the future of our HE system through once in a generation change.

Professor Vivek Goel as President of Waterloo University in Canada is leading an exercise to generate a vision for what Waterloo will look like at 100.  This 35 year future planning horizon is unheralded in global universities and generates a unique perspective on risk, culture, vision, mission and change. He outlines the opportunities this creates for differentiation and cultural change and the impacts this has on Waterloo and its partners and staff engaging with broader system-level change to allow the Waterloo culture to fit with the context in which the organisation works.

Data Scientist Stephen Shaw founded birthgap.org following his work surfacing the growing global gaps in birth rates from that required to sustain populations.  He has found that all countries will see a dramatic fall in future populations due to births falling below a replacement rate of 2.1. He joins the HEDx podcast along with Professor Selena Bartlett, Professor of Neuroscience at QUT, to discuss how this phenomena impacts the future of universities and how it creates a structural shift from school leaver university populations toward lifelong learning needs and the opportunities this creates for global universities.

Professor KC Chua is President of Singapore Institute of Technology where he leads a differentiated institution of applied learning. In a system with two top 50 comprehensive research universities SIT pursues a different mission focused on skills, jobs and the needs of business and industry. And no one cares about its place in rankings. Does Australia need more places like SIT?

This episode has a report from the recent ASU+GSV summit where global innovators explored the brave new world of higher Ed technology. Hear from Michael Moe of GSV, Paul LeBlanc of SNHU, Ethan Mollick of U Penn and Laura Ipsen of Ellucian about how universities, tech companies and investors are collaborating to disrupt the future of higher Ed. And learn how you can get involved 

Professor Sanjay Sarma reflects on his experience as Vice President of Online Learning at MIT with empathy for students developed in his own time as an IIT student in India. He describes the background to and ideas in a landmark MIT white paper for a new kind of college where professors spend 80% of their time on teaching. What is it, what problem does it seek to solve, and where is this idea heading?

Scott Pulsipher President of the world’s largest fully online university in Western Governors University (WGU) shares the story of a unique purpose and business model. He outlines a relentless focus on outcomes for students as the big idea that emerged from WGU governors asking what if questions when it was formed. These questions were about the purpose, goal and design of education programs and its  pathways to opportunity to serve societal and economic need.

Professor Caron Beaton-Wells the Dean (internal) at Melbourne Business School joins the HEDx podcast to share lessons of how one of our most prestigious institutions is pursuing innovation in the higher education market.Outlining the use of technology, partnerships and new business models, the episode illustrates how even our most established and reputed institutions can also pursue radical change and innovation in taking a legacy higher education brand into the new world of lifelong learning.

Professor Mary O'Kane in leading the University Accord invites HEDx to be a facilitator and provocateur of big ideas into the biggest review of our higher education system for a generation. Immediately after the launch of the issues paper and an initial 6 week consultation period at the UA conference, Mary joins the HEDx podcast to invite its members and audience to articulate big ideas from within our sector and others, from Australia and beyond. Coming two weeks before our major sector conference in Melbourne on March 15th the episode provides an opportunity to the sector to bring big ideas to bear on key challenges that make up the new leadership agenda that HEDx has articulated through 65 episodes to date, and which a major government review is now calling for answers to.

Paul LeBlanc, the President of Southern New Hampshire University in the US, joins the HEDx podcast for a second part of his interview. He talks about his radical model of scalable higher education delivered by his staff who focus on the personal needs of their students. He draws from his recent book "Broken" to demonstrate the importance of his students and staff being seen and feeling they mattered.