HEDx

As AI reshapes how students learn, get assessed, and enter the workforce, one question is becoming more urgent: do students actually know what makes them uniquely human? In this episode, Annabel is joined by Timothy Hodges, Executive Director of the Clifton Strengths Institute at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and Anne Lingafelter, Principal at Gallup, to explore how strengths-based education...

As AI reshapes how students learn, get assessed, and enter the workforce, one question is becoming more urgent: do students actually know what makes them uniquely human? In this episode, Annabel is joined by Timothy Hodges, Executive Director of the Clifton Strengths Institute at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and Anne Lingafelter, Principal at Gallup, to explore how strengths-based education...

Most universities have AI ambition. Far fewer have figured out how to turn that into something students actually feel. In this episode, Annabel is joined by Kate Shum, Product General Manager at Technology One, and Gail Bray, Chief Transformation Officer at Victoria University, to talk about what it actually takes to move from experimentation to real impact. They cover where to start, how to build...

Valerie Singer leads the Global Education Team at Amazon Web Services, working with universities across more than 200 countries. In this episode, she and Martin talk about the gap between what employers need and what graduates actually bring, why 53% of employers say AI skills are their biggest hiring challenge, and what universities can do right now, this semester, to start closing it. A conversa...

Two days of conversations about AI, disruption, and the future of higher education. This is where it ends — and where the real question begins. Did we just talk, or did something actually change? Martin gets put on the spot, Sam says what most people won't about public universities, Sean proposes replacing disruption with construction, and two students close the whole series with something sim...

Episode 9 of The AI Inflection Point — the last conversation on the student experience. Most universities will tell you they listen to their students. But listening and actually responding are two very different things. Jasmine Johnston moderates a panel that gets honest about that gap. Ghazal Duggal, nursing student at USQ and student representative, on what it feels like to carry the concerns of...

Could undergraduate research help strengthen Australia’s innovation pipeline? In this Student Experience episode, Dr Sharon Saunders and Ben Roden-Cohen are joined by ACUR leaders Dr Lilia Mantai and Claudia Ghosn to explore how early research experiences build student confidence, capability and career pathways. They discuss the value of undergraduate research, the barriers limiting participation,...

Episode 8 of The AI Inflection Point - the second of two conversations on the student experience. Brandman University went from 65% to 90% graduation rates in five years. Not by adding more services. Just by asking a simple question: what's actually getting in the way for students? The answer wasn't money or motivation. It was time. Roger Lee brings together four people sitting with that same ques...

Episode 7 of The AI Inflection Point — the first of two conversations on connecting the dots between VET and higher education. David Turvey, Executive Director of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, brings together four leaders who aren't talking about what could happen — they're already doing it. Pascale Quester, Vice-Chancellor of Swinburne University, on what it actually takes...

At the HEDx Conference at UTS, Ben Roden-Cohen and Madison Piper talk with Pascale Quester, Rachel Wilson, Rachel Fitzgerald, Danny Liu, Tim Fawns and Katie Ford to ask what the future of higher education should look like — and who gets a say in shaping it. The conversation goes beyond technology to explore the value of student voice, the importance of diverse perspectives in decision-making, and...

Episode 6 of The AI Inflection Point — and the last of four conversations on coalitions. The previous three episodes asked why collaborate, whether partnerships can be transformational, and whether scale is the answer. This one asks something simpler: what does it actually look like when you do it? Lou Conway built the Country University Centre network — 28 federated centres across regional Austra...

Episode 5 of The AI Inflection Point — the third of four conversations on coalitions. Dan Greenstein has 35 years of data from the UK and the US. His conclusion is direct: scale is the primary hedge against financial unpredictability. In Australia, more than 40% of institutions have spent most of the last five years in deficit. Organic growth is too slow. And the policy window won't stay open...

Nothing about us, without us: Beyond the student panel. At this year’s HEDx Conference at UTS, students weren’t just attendees- they were embedded across the program, contributing to the hosting, and delivery of sessions. So what shifts when the student voice moves beyond the traditional panel format? In this episode, Student Voice Australasia speaks live with delegates on the ground- from vice ch...

Episode 4 of The AI Inflection Point — and the second of four conversations on coalitions. Australian universities have been building global partnerships for decades. But have those partnerships actually changed anything — for students, for institutions, for the sector? This conversation asks the harder question: not whether to collaborate globally, but whether the partnerships being built are gen...

Episode 3 of The AI Inflection Point — and the first of four conversations on coalitions. Can universities lead the AI transformation that higher education needs — alone? The answer is no. But what "together" actually looks like when your institution is under real financial pressure is a much harder conversation. This panel brings together four leaders with very different starting points. Rose Luc...

Episode 2 of The AI Inflection Point — six conversations recorded at the HEDx 2026 conference in Sydney. The diagnosis is set. Now: what does it actually take to respond? Lucy Marshall from the University of Sydney names what most leaders know but rarely say out loud — universities don't have an innovation problem. They have a culture problem. Fear is the barrier. Not budget, not technology. Fear....

Episode 1 of The AI Inflection Point — our six-part series recorded at the HEDx 2026 conference in Sydney. This first episode sets the diagnosis: universities were designed for a student who no longer exists. Professor KC Chua, President of Singapore Institute of Technology, and Pierpaolo Limone, Rector of Pegaso University in Rome, answer the same question from opposite sides of the world: for wh...

In this episode for Student Experience, UQ students Madison Piper and Ben Roden-Cohen sit down with Professor Kris Ryan, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), for a conversation about uncertainty, AI, cost of living pressures, mental health, learning, and what universities are actually for.

Scott Pulsipher, President of Western Governors University, and Sasha Thackaberry-Voinovich, President of New State University, opened HEDx at UTS with an uncomfortable truth: institutions that waited for the right moment to transform had already fallen behind. Scott reflected on 25 years of building WGU outside the boundaries of traditional higher education — and warned that even that model is al...

HEDx's largest and most ambitious event opened at University of Technology Sydney, welcoming more than 600 leaders, students and partners to two days built around one question: are we actually going to change anything, or just feel good about wanting to? Vice Chancellor Andrew Parfitt, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic and Vice President Kylie Readman and student leader Chloe Ferreira open with...

Aaron Driver and Neil Durant of the University of New England argue that universities should not wait to be disrupted by AI - they should lead the disruption themselves. In this episode, we explore UNE’s vision for the future of learning, from personalised education and “earned learning” to Studio, a next-generation learning experience engine designed to make higher education more human, engaging...

Students with disabilities are the fastest growing equity cohort in Australian tertiary education yet they continue to experience lower satisfaction , access, success , attainment , completion and employment outcomes than their higher education peers. In this episode of the HEDx Student Experience Podcast , Student Leader Jennifer Lowe and Student Voice Australasia’s Belinda Brear sit down with Pr...

Alex Elibank-Murray of UniSC hosts a panel of colleague Leah Barclay, industry partner Tracey Whitelaw and student Callum Phillips to argue that the future of higher education may not be a classroom at all. In this episode, we explore immersive learning, XR technologies and the rise of virtual campuses — revealing how universities are already being transformed by AI, storytelling and real-world in...

Jason Clare launches a new 2050 Alliance grouping of universities focused on students, communities and the future, HEDx joins them to define AI coalitions in Australia. George Williams ,Chair of the Alliance and its CEO Paul Harris reflect on the launches from Canberra. And ACU Provost Julie Cogin reflects on how AI presents opportunity to dramatically improve retention. This event progresses glob...

Helen Bartlett Vice-Chancellor of University of the Sunshine Coast joins industry partner Yas Nemet of Microsoft and staff and student colleagues, They showcase a best practice example of universities and TAFE working in partnership with employers to provide workplace relevant skills. Described alongside feedback from a learner and teacher, this episode explores new models of how industry engaged...