HEDx

Geraldine Mackenzie VC of University of Southern Queensland joins Karl and Martin on HEDx to reflect on how her strategy, that was nearing completion when COVID hit, has been delayed, revised and is reorienting USQ to work even more closely with industry partners on translation, and even more closely with technology in transforming learning practices. She applauds how the sector is working together, at least in its respective parts, but acknowledges all in the sector are yet to have clarity on whether the short-term adjustments to regional living through tree and sea changes will have prominence over digital disruption in determining the nature of the seismic changes to come for the sector. A time when all in the sector need new thinking, new solutions and new places to get help from.

This episode sees Karl and Martin joined by Chris Eigeland the Chief Revenue Officer of GO1 an Edtech start up. The episode explores how new entrants are moving at warp speed to disrupt business models for lifelong learning as a route to democratising access to education and knowledge. The implications to universities are profound with the clearest argument yet that the days of expensive 4-year degrees are numbered. The case is made for the need to be prepared to give up the short term gains of current offerings if long term benefits from a disrupting business model are to be secured before new entrants do.

In this episode of HEDx Karl and Martin are joined by Sarah, a second year student at Monash University. She applauds the way they helped her through the challenges of 2020 and looks forward to some greater social interaction and some return to campus for 2021. The episode raises the prospect of the sleeping giant of disrupted value propositions in all of our universities for both international and domestic students and the need for third horizon planning to focus on the new business models that will be required. The clearest picture yet of the challenge the sector is facing.

The HEDx team talk with Professor Duncan Bentley after his first 90 days as Vice Chancellor at Federation University in regional Victoria. He shares his thoughts about how to get to know a new place, its culture and its staff, students and partners, in trying times. He also focusses on the need for care for all in a university community. Duncan speculates about the role of regional universities in 2021 and how a focus on their external communities can set them apart. He presents this as a differentiated strategy, at times when some think all universities look the same.

In the first episode of 2021 Karl and Martin are joined on HEDx by Professor John Germov, the Acting VC of Charles Sturt University in NSW. Together they reflect on how all universities are positioned to start a new year in our universities. They discuss how a new year strategic health check, that universities are starting to use around the country, can help leaders ask the right questions to set them, their staff, and their students for success in this year of opportunity. What will yours and your university's new year's resolution be?

This week's podcast allows Karl and Martin of HEDx to discuss the importance of data analytics and finding ways of monitoring and forecasting market changes. John Griffiths, as CEO of one of our state Tertiary Admissions Centres, shares current market data of applications and offers for next year's intake. He confirms trends towards online study and micro credentials in future student demand, and innovative admissions practices by universities in response, which he believes are here to stay.

In this episode Barney Glover VC at Western Sydney University outlines his assessment of where the sector is up to and how WSU is looking to sharpen its approach to respond to the needs of partners and its communities. He also pays tribute to the extraordinary efforts of WSU staff in the most challenging of years.

Leading commentator on the changing perspectives of young Australians and the future of work Jan Owen AM joins Martin and Karl to reflect on the acceleration that has occurred in trends for young people and their work futures and the implications for our universities. The winners will be those that adapt quickest and develop their staff capabilities and connections with partners that allow them to be 21st Century fit.

Pascale Quester of Swinburne University of Technology joins the HEDx podcast at the end of her first 100 days as Vice Chancellor. She reflects on how all universities have the chance to leave the peloton and make the run to their own finish line based on an assessment of how they are shaped for the competition they want to compete in. The HEDx Health Check is also launched to help each university in the sector measure how it is placed to compete.

In this episode, noted commentator and policy analyst Andrew Norton joins Karl and Martin in the first HEDx episode in association with the leading educational publication Campus Review. Now more certainty is emerging in the sector with regard to funding, policy and how universities can operate in the new year, this is the time for a strategic reset.