HEDx

Australian Entrepreneur of the Year for 2022 Linda Brown as CEO of Torrens University Australia johns the HEDx podcast. She shares her thoughts on the opportunities for private universities in Australia and globally to utilise EdTech and partner with connected employers. She advocates Torren's success in plugging the gap of industry relevant higher education for global cus...

Maria Spies as Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Holon IQ shares an update to their report on 5 scenarios for the future of higher education  by 2030. She outlines the priorities for the innovation agenda for universities for the path ahead and the need to keep moving at the same or faster pace as competitors to be positioned for disruption and transformation ahead.

Rick Shangraw, after 20 years at ASU, describes how their success story is founded on using enterprise to allow inclusive access to excellent education and research that serves end user purpose and communities.  He then articulates, as CEO of ASU startup Cintana, how that model is being taken to up to 50 partner universities around the world in seeking to democratise education for the benefit...

Betty Vandenbosch joins the HEDx podcast as Chief Content Officer of Coursera to outline her vision of how the landscape of global higher education will have changed by 2030 and what Coursera and global universities can best do to prepare for that vision. She sees a clear picture of hybrid learning combining with hybrid working and stackable and flexible packages of learning being accessed on glob...

CEO of EdPlus at Arizona State University, Phil Regier explains the background to how online students have grown to close to 84,000 across all disciplines in major partnerships with employers in Starbucks and Uber in partnership with the global EdTech community. The journey to online education becoming core to the whole university and to all students who make their own choice of how, when and wher...

Cadmus CEO Herk Kailis joins the podcast to outline how EdTech companies have emerged to provide support services to help individual universities focus on what they want to be great at. He describes the importance and scope for technology innovation and adoption in the narrow area of student assessment and the broader areas of learning. He gives pointers to the extraordinary levels of investment t...

President Michael Crow approaches 20 years as President of ASU ranked as the most innovative US university for seven years running. He shares a clear message of the need for distinction and differentiation and of ASU's mission to democratise higher education for the world. He measures the ASU strategy by the students they include and building pathways for all to succeed. Their technology-enabled s...

Professor Malcolm Press CBE joins the podcast as the VC of Manchester Metropolitan University. He shares insights into his commitment to his staff and students and the commitment Manchester Met has to its civic setting in a major city in the UK. He shares lessons from a 200 year history of an institution that is pioneering degree apprenticeships and design education among other things and illustra...

Professor Judy Raper CEO of TEDI London joins the podcast to describe how an alliance of research power houses Arizona State University, UNSW and Kings College are reconceiving design and engineering education in a start up in London. A staff cohort with no lecturers delivering problem based learning in industry partnerships, using the most advanced pedagogy and learning technologies, with no dist...

Professor Colin Stirling Vice Chancellor of Flinders University in Adelaide outlines the positioning of Flinders to Be Fearless in its focus on combining world class research with student success through new physical infrastructure. He responds to the renewed prospect of SA university mergers following the election of Premier Malinauskis. And he explains an approach to differentiating in the incre...

Vice Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry AO of the University of Queensland outlines how a refresh of a Group of Eight university strategy in the depths of the pandemic got energised and inspired by the award of the Olympic Games to her city shortly before the strategy was to be finessed by university leadership after an engagement jam across staff students and external partners. It illustrates how...

Catriona Jackson the CEO of Universities Australia joins the podcast in the aftermath of the ministerial non-approval of 6 ARC Discovery grants, the tightrope walking around foreign interference and research partnerships, and as campuses reopen with staff and students, particularly women, having some reluctance of what they are returning to. Immediately following our first HEDx Live event on gende...

Professor Carolyn Evans VC of Griffith University and Chair of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) group reflects on how having a new strategy coming into 2020 served her well in providing a true north to navigate the challenges of the disruptions of a pandemic. And as the IRU reflect on their distinctiveness as a group of universities, she reflects on how innovation has been made the neces...

Professor Jan Thomas VC for 5 years of Massey University and Chair of Universities New Zealand outlines the issues being faced in the different setting and context of NZ compared to her earlier experience of 5 years leading the University of Southern Queensland. She sees universities as beacons of hope if they can pull together, work in partnership with government, industry and communities, and wo...

This episode sees a student join us in orientation week then again in week 12 of her first semester. She shares expectations coming into the course and how these are impacted by her understanding of brand and reputation. We join her again at the end of her first semester to learn of her positive experiences, that differ across parts of the university, and align with some of the expectations of the...

Anthony Forster of Essex University in the UK joins the podcast as our first international VC. He describes the values that drive how his university seeks to differentiate and what made it UK University of the Year in 2018. He outlines the quite different issues of government funding for research and flow of international students, particularly from India, that UK universities are facing compared...

VC David Lloyd of the University of South Australia shares insights from running the first staff jam across his whole university in getting staff engagement to a strategy. And repeating it again 4 years later. He outlines how one unforeseen idea cost him $50m. He outlines the novel approach of leaving staff to decide how academic units should be organized only making the proviso it should be based...

Kent Anderson DVC at Newcastle joins us soon after a 2 year spell in Ministers' Tehan and Tudge's office guiding recent policy changes. He comments on the divide between chancelleries and ministry that has developed in recent years. He puts it down to the challenge of listening and who is in charge of the sandpit. The traverse of the landscape of policy changes concludes with an astute assessment...

In this episode, Professor Jennifer Whyte of University of Sydney joins the HEDx podcast to reflect on culture, leadership and partnerships as an AUstralian Head of School in a Go8 compared to her experiences at Imperial College in the UK. She outlines opportunities for Australian universities to take advantage of new modes of connections, in particular a forthcoming Olympic Games in 2032, to rein...

Denice Pitt CEO of online learning pioneers OES joins Karl and Martin to reflect on the 10 year journey of her company supporting universities in bringing high quality online learning to non-traditional students. She outlines the culture and technology combination, and novel approach to partnership, that makes it possible and has allowed student experience levels to be maintained through the disru...

Professor Alwyn Louw joins HEDx as Vice Chancellor of Torrens University to tell of its growth to close to 20,000 students in seven years. As a US-owned private university operating across Australia, the Torrens story is one of fast growth, differentiated strategy, and a unique set up of governance and executive roles. It has a focus on innovation and growth with balanced ambitions for new domesti...

Sandra Harding, as Australia's current longest serving VC of a single Australian university at JCU in Townsville, joins the HEDx team. She reflects on how the sector's leaders and staff are feeling and of the culture change that is needed for a very different future than that she anticipated as UA Chair in 2013. She tells the story of how JCU was created and positioned to be unique as a university...

Patrica Davdson the new VC of Wollongong University in NSW joins HEDx to outline the compassionate approach to leadership she has brought to her first 90 days. She outlines the challenges she perceives for the sector, its staff and its students. As she prepares the new strategy for Wollongong she celebrates the people, the community and the history. She sees genuine opportunities for universities...

This episode has University of Newcastle VC Alex Zelinsky join HEDx to outline the 5 year strategy called Looking Ahead. A leader with CSIRO and Defence Scientist backgrounds dismisses the prospect of research commercialisation replacing lost international student revenue. He instead outlines a future path based on community engagement and blended student experiences and fully recognises the impor...

Guy Littlefair, PVC International at Auckland University of Technology joins HEDx to share insights into transitions between university and business environments and the importance of partnerships. He gives great pointers to how universities and businesses can best work together in addressing local and global issues. In the week that Mark Scott takes over at the University of Sydney, and foreshado...