HEDx

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...

This episode has Margaret Sheil join the HEDx team to outline where QUT is up to in refreshing its blueprint strategy. As the university with the most well known brand position in Australia, promoting that in a post-COVID era is a priority for Margaret as VC. She outlines where a significant organisational change is up to and how the focus now is on rebuilding the culture at QUT to allow the strat...

This interview with the new Chair of our peak body Universities Australia, sees Vice Chancellor of La Trobe John Dewar assess how we are doing as a sector and interpret the gauntlet thrown at us by Minister Tudge in his recent speech. John gives a rich picture of the complexity of the commercialisation and campus return issues. He outlines how moves to differentiate on function and by discipline w...

This episode has Karl and Martin joined by Professor Lynn Bosetti of UBC in Canada who gives insights into how Australian leaders in universities encounter academic workforces using incivility as behaviour to resist change and attempts at strategic direction. She draws on experience in both countries as an academic leader and her research of VCs and Deans around the world, to outline how the emoti...

Professor Marcia Devlin joins Martin and Karl to discuss her new book, Beating the Odds, on sexism in Australian universities in the week it is launched. Marcia outlines the inequity as well as the financial, cultural and performance disadvantages that arise from a lack of diversity in leadership teams and how this can be changed by women, men and all leaders following different strategies. The ep...

Leading learning technology innovator Dr David Kellermann is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at UNSW in Sydney. He joins Martin and Karl to share his thoughts on the journey he believes all universities must take towards a new hybrid learning model of teaching. As a pioneer of learning technology and innovation he was well prepared for the acceleration in this in 2020 and applied his commitment t...

PwC's Chief Data Scientist, Matt Kuperholz talks with Karl about the evolution of the industry and the role of data in shaping the future of higher education

In this episode of HEDx Brigid Heywood outlines her journey into the role of VC and CEO at Australia's oldest regional university in New England plucked from a planned retirement in Easter Island. She outlines a new strategy for UNE built on a long tradition of distance education and on recent advances and radical ambitions for personalised learning journeys at the heart of differentiated student...

In this week's HEDx episode, Karl and Martin are joined by their first international guest in Professor Giselle Byrnes. Giselle is the Provost with responsibilities across research, commercialisation and teaching and learning at distance learning innovator Massey University in New Zealand. She gives pointers in her interview to some of the differences in culture, tradition, priorities and practice...

This week on HEDx Karl and Martin speak with the leaders from one of Australia's leading technology companies REA Group. They explore the relationship between REA Group and the higher education sector and what progressive organisations need from universities as the world moves on from COVID-19. Going from $500M to $17B in 15 years only happens through brilliant strategy and cultural excellence. Th...