HEDx

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...

This second short and snappy podbite describes changes in the program of HEDx activities made in response to feedback. New new member of the HEDx team, engagement strategist Annabel Murphy joins the podbite. She brings experience of industry university engagement and content strategy from Europe and Australia. She using AI to align HEDx activities and content to members and partners needs. She dis...

Josh Nester MD of SEEK investments is joined by a group of the world's most innovative EdTech companies. Nicola Cresp of OES, Joel di Trapani of Vygo, Sabih bin Wasi of Stellic and Trevor Fairweather of ReadyTech dissect issues of scaling student impact with AI. They explore the need all students have for human connection and how tech solutions need to add, not detract from it, in personalised way...

This is the first in a series of snappy short podcasts called podbites. They are updates on a key topic and question with inputs from various members of the HEDx ecosystem at the time. This one follows a visit to Canberra and Sydney during the UA conference of 2026 and argues that we need more inputs from external sources including students, out-of-sector innovators, and international sources to a...

The first Student Experience episode features a lively panel of students and sector leaders from the launch event, exploring the exciting future of the podcast and the role of student voice in shaping higher education. Hosted by Kelly Matthews, with contributions from Martin Betts, the episode also features insights from David Turvey PSM (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) and Jonathan Dave...

Noah Pickus, Director of Global Strategy from Duke University joins the podcast to launch this alliance to Australian and NZ. With a closing date for EOIs of March 6, time is tight to join a global alliance of diverse institutions seeking to learn from each other in their innovation. HEDx is delighted to be working with Noah and bringing him to Sydney in June. We are also connecting his venture wi...

Timothy Burt from the Future Skills Organisation , Gail Bray from Victoria University , Colin Gniel from LinkedIn and Dr. Kathryn Blyth from The University of Queensland explore:  why AI evolves faster than curriculum, systems and our ability to keep up, why coordination across sectors is fragmented, and why human skills in communication, judgement and creativity are rising in value. One line stay...

Professor Deborah Terry AC leads The University of Queensland and the Group of 8 universities. She outlines declining trust as the key issue facing the sector. She explains why and how it has happened and that doing something about primarily calls for a return to purpose. She illustrates how that is being done at UQ through The Queensland Commitment. And she explains how that applies to the challe...

Charlsey Pearce as CEO of Mortar Caps Data Standard is a long term HEDx partner leading an innovation project around data standards for human capability records that support lifelong learning and tertiary harmonisation. In this episode she introduces, leads and comments on a HEDx webinar that led to the development of a White Paper recently submitted to ATEC, JSA and the Productivity Commission. T...

Kivanch Oner is CIO of University of Nevada Las Vegas. He joins me and co-host Matt Cavallaro of Salesforce to discuss how change to serve changing student needs is achieved in a leading R1 US university. Our discussion traverses changes facing students and how they impact providers seeking to serve them. The place of technology as an enabler is analysed through the UNLV experience. The importance...