HEDx

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...

Four weeks from the June event saw us visit Melbourne to plan our first AI innovation coalition in Australia. Catching up with partners of 5 years OES and their CEO Jon Davey was followed by visits to Sam Jacob at Collarts and Laura-Anne Bull and Llew Mann at Swinburne. Day 2 saw feedback from Gail Bray of VU and Marcia Devlin on the importance of keeping the human dimension in these innovations a...

Lev Gonick CIO of ASU and Alphia Possamai-Inesedy of WSU join a HEDx event hosted by Helen Bartlett VC of University of the Sunshine Coast on employability and industry engagement. With 48 million living Americans who experienced but left university life with no qualifications and large debt, the certainty that university gets you a job is no more. Yet with one employer able to support 29,000 curr...

For those looking for some joy and inspiration about the mission of Australian universities, it is right here. In 20 minutes, this conversation between 2026 Australian University Teacher of the Year Associate Professor Roma Forbes, UQ undergraduate student Madi Piper, and Professor Kelly Matthews offers a grounded reminder of what higher education can be at its best: relational, human, intellectua...

Professor Lucy Marshall is DVC of Community and Leadership at University of Sydney. In this episode she joins Peter Chun as CEO of UniSuper to explore the comparative issues of culture, change management and staff wellbeing between academic and commercial organisations. The transformation and disruption facing the sector, and the rapid emergence of AI and changing market demands, are adding to the...

This week's podbite follows 3 major milestones of Annabel Murphy becoming the first HEDx FT employee, the launch of the Sydney June event program, and the kick off of new AI sandbox projects with collaborators in the UK, US and Australia. Get a summary with this 3 minute overview from the new HEDx offices in Brisbane.

Most PhDs are built on original ideas and critical thinking—so what happens when AI enters the equation? On this episode of the HEDx Student Experience Podcast, three researchers confront the daunting yet exciting challenges AI poses to research integrity, authorship, and the very core of scholarly originality. Join HEDx Associate Sharon Saunders as she hosts an expert-driven discussion about how...

CEO Margot McNeill and Chief Industry and Innovation Officer Georgia von Guttner host HEDx at the Canberra Institute of Technology to share insights into the new Woden campus at the heart of the tertiary harmonisation agenda. They outline its history, philosophy and strategy allowing a radical approach to skills development, AI mastery and giving voice to students as human capital is developed to...

This episode is from a site visit to the Wyndham Tech School in Werribee. A tour of a real tertiary harmonisation centre of excellence with Director Sam Nikolsky and VU's newly appointed Chief Transformation Officer Gail Bray. In the presence of some of the many thousands of students who get to have their curiosity sparked by a place that comes alive as you go through the front door, this is a...

This episode reflects on what members in UTS and USyd are bringing to the next HEDx event. It follows meetings making plans for workshops on collective intelligence, AI agents for HEDx content, and the further development of the Castlereagh Statement. And it gives updates on what partners notably MCDS, AWS, Salesforce and many others are collaborating on for shared standards and human capability r...

What happens when students listen in as teaching academics from across Australia speak with Professor Barney Glover – Acting Chief Commissioner of the new national body shaping higher education or ATEC – about the future of higher education? UQ students Madi Piper and Ben Roden-Cohen share what stood out, what surprised them, and what they want leaders to understand about the real student experien...

Professor Kelly Matthews steps in to host a special Teaching and Education Focused Academics (TEFA) Network conversation. Academics from across Australia come together to speak with Professor Barney Glover, Acting Chief Commissioner of the new national body shaping the future of higher education. This episode explores the evolving landscape of the sector, offering insights, questions, and perspect...

This latest weekly reflection follows the second week of visits to UK Vice-Chancellors in London. In a collaboration with Rose Luckin and EDUCATE Ventures Research we are embarking on two pilots of university innovation coalitions in the UK and Australia. They will allow sharing of practices in using AI for experiments as varied as: developing critical thinking, tertiary harmonisation pathways, sc...

A Podbite live from London where HEDx joins Rose Luckin of EVR and her colleagues in exploring AI innovation sandboxes. We visit Antony Finkelstein of City St Georges University, Paul Kett of London South Bank University, and Shan Wareing of Middlesex. Off the back of engagement with Duke University's Future Universities Alliance, HEDx builds further global links in AI innovation best practice...

Grant Robertson looks up and out 18 months in as Otago VC. As former Deputy PM of NZ he returns to where he studied and worked in research commercialisation, to lead change in a traditional research-intensive university. As a non-academic VC he reflects on his views as a past-President of the Otago Student Union and a 5 page letter he wrote of what was wrong with universities. He shares experience...

This question is posed in the light of overwhelming student debt and non-completion in the US, the call for an employer levy by Bill Shorten in Australia, and the debate about student loans schemes punishing students in the UK. It has insights drawn from Lev Gonick at ASU, Helen Bartlett and her innovative colleagues and partners in Australia, and from a visit to Antony Finkelstein at City Univers...

Pierpaolo Limone is Rector of Pegaso University in Rome. He leads a privately-owned 100,000+ student online university. He is former Rector of the University of Foggia a traditional research university. He shows how a leader schooled in traditional academic environments facilitates disruption as a new entrant in a highly regulated system. He views research as a key differentiator for any universit...