HEDx

The Human Systems group of Paul LeBlanc, George Siemens and Tanya Gambey are exploring the concept of an AI-first university. At a recent event at UTS organised by AWS they were joined by leaders from La Trobe, UNSW, Macquarie and others to explore the concept in an Australian context. Listen to an update on this conversation from the global leaders of this idea and of a range of reactions from those following similar paths or doubting it will make any difference. A chance to satisfy you own curiosity in reflecting on the conversation.

Professor Kerri-Lee Krause was the most recent person to start a new university in Australia. She has now been appointed to chair the panel to advise the minister and regulator on standards in the sector. This follows a career leading learning and education and academic work at Griffith, Victoria, La Trobe and Melbourne universities before establishing Avondale in its university status after having been a graduate many years before. She quotes TS Elliott as not ceasing from exploration and returning to where she started to know the place for the first time.

Chris Hill as APAC CEO reflects on his experience of pioneering new models of private investment and online education globally in roles at Laureate and now Cintana. He describes the background to a new partnership with Ramsay Healthcare and Health Careers International. It outlines how a local provider can work in partnership in allowing the world class experience and expertise of ASU to be brought to bear on the sector ecology of Australian higher education for the benefit of domestic and international student nurses. Sector diversification and new provider models in action.

Professor Rowena Harper, DVC Education of Edith Cowan University is a leading innovator and pioneer in new models of education fit for the emerging technologies and student expectations. She shares ECU experiences in innovation with Jason Lodge of The University of Queensland and I in this episode. She reflects on the current challenges of safeguarding academic integrity in an AI era and how these are systemic issues with the model the sector has developed that require a fundmanetal rethink more than a tweaking of regulations and assessment practices.

Michael Horn was co-founder of the Clayton Christenson Institute and co-authored The Disruptive Class with Clay. In this episode he outlines the difference between sustaining and disruptive innovation and revisits the predictions Clay and he made at the time they were due to come to pass. While a pandemic and accelerated emergence of AI might have tweaked the pace and direction, he sees the closure of 1 college a week in the US and looming financial upheaval in the UK, Australia and elsewhere support his observations of the disruptors he sees around the HE world.

Professor Ken Sloan is Vice Chancellor of Harper Adams University in the UK. He joins the podcast in the first of a series of episodes delivered in a partnership between HEDx and the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils. The series will explore global universities pursuing diverse examples of place-based innovation following earlier episodes with Aleks Subic, Deborah L. Wince-Smith, and Joan Gabel. Ken has honed the Harper Adams approach to rural place-based innovation in the specialist, agricultural setting he is now in from previous experiences at Warwick and Monash universities.

Erin Morley is Education Editor of Campus Review and writes for a higher education staff audience about change and where it is heading. After a year in the role, and as HEDx approaches 4 years of continuous sharing including on the Campus Review platform, Erin and Martin reflect on media and content providers perspective of the stories that currently matter. As HEDx and Campus review increasingly turn to global leaders' ideas, they reflect together on a need for new ideas and less parochial perspectives on the sector as it faces opportunities and changes ahead.

Sir Chris Husbands is former Vice Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and the first Chair of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework. He recently published reports into future implications of generative AI and four scenarios for the future of higher education in England. He sees an acute need for leaders to listen to the dispossessed who miss out on higher education. He argues that complacency and arrogance leaves us at risk of not rethinking a university model in acute need of change to embrace technology, evolve culture and engage communities if HE is to realise its true potential.

Noah Pickus of Duke University and Bryan Penprase of Soka University share insights from their recent book The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century. It describes 8 global case studies of new universities in North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Each have redefined the inherited ritual of what universities do. The book and episode provide lessons for leaders to challenge the conventional university model paradigm using intellectual courage, entrepreneurial audacity and adaptive leadership.

Paulo and Guilherme Silveira are two brothers who co-founded and lead Alura as an integrated set of companies delivering IT skills in Brazil. They do so with support from SEEK Investments whose MD Josh Nester joins me on this episode. Their business spans from state partnerships in K-12, through a university they bought and now operate, to skills provision for alumni lifelong learners, that grow into corporate education for new leaders of businesses. In total they serve more than 2 million learners as a business. The example gives pointers of new revenue and diversification opportunities that others could learn from.