Director of education for SEEK Investments Joshua Nester joins Martin Betts in conversation at the March HEDx conference in Melbourne. As an industry leader in ed-tech, Mr Nester gives a global overview of investments currently being made in private universities, ed-tech companies, management systems and content aggregators. He outlines how this is changing the competitive landscape of global higher education.

The conversation is followed by a panel led by Sue Kokonis, chief academic officer at SEEK's parent company, Online Education Services. She is joined by CEO of Edugrowth David Linke, pedagogical evangelist at Adobe Manuela Franceschini, deputy vice-chancellor (education) at RMIT Sherman Young, and dean of Macquarie Business School Eric Knight. Together, they answer the question: how will technology change higher education for good?

Thursday's HEDx Changing Higher Education for Good conference called university leaders to action ahead of the finalisation of a government response to the Universities Accord final report.

In this episode, Chair of Universities Australia, David Lloyd gives his keynote address to the conference attendees.

Also, hear responses on the Accord and international student policy from a panel of vice-chancellors, including Andrew Parfitt from the University of Technology Sydney, Helen Bartlett from the the University of the Sunshine Coast, and deputy vice-chancellors, Jessica Vanderlelie from La Trobe University, and Kent Anderson from the University of Newcastle.

Amidst concerns about decreasing domestic enrolments at a time of critical skills shortage, restricting of international student enrolments, and heightening student dissatisfaction, there were lively debates and solutions proposed.

Should universities wait for a commission?

One of the recommendations of the Accord was to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC). A number of university leaders were in agreement, believing it is a required first step towards university policy reform agreements.

If a tertiary commission was to go ahead, it's a reform that would have to be government approved, in the same way as the recently green-lit student ombudsman.

One of the roles of the proposed commission would be to protect the sector reforms, and shepherd them through any successive changes of government; acting as a "buffer" for the 47 Accord recommendations, some of which are expected to take 25 years to implement.

Chair of Universities Australia (UA) David Lloyd addressed the conference on this issue, saying that there had been enough discussion about ATEC and now it was time to act.

"[ATEC's] proposed establishment is perhaps the most urgent consultation that's needed in all of the items that are in the final report," he said.

"Most, if not all, of the recommendations in the final report hang off the establishment of the ATEC.

"Now that we have the [Accord] report, funnily enough, we're still doing a lot of talking.

"As a sector, I think it's pretty safe to say that our voice has been heard. I have to be honest, for my part, I'm looking forward to doing less talking and just getting on with it."

Although, he added, he still has many questions about what a commission would look like.

"How big will it be? How far will its powers extend? Will it add value or will it add another layer of red tape and bureaucracy? How would it differ from the functions already within the Department of Education?" he asked.

"Does it make sense for [the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency] and the [Australian Research Council] to sit within an ATEC structure? Is it going to be a permanent body? Is it going to have a finite lifespan? I could go on, there's so many unknowns in this."

Other leaders were of the opinion that a commission might slow reform down, adding unnecessary government processes at a time when universities need to act quickly to address the nation's need to grow a university educated future workforce.

Deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle Professor Kent Anderson pointed out the Accord process has already been relatively slow, noting that universities 'didn't have to do any policy reform' during the 18-month Accord consultation period.

Of the process he said: "Then [the government] said, 'Well, we're not going to tell anyone what it says for another three months."

"Then they say, 'Oh, well, we can't really do anything until we get this new committee together to look at what we might do.'

"And then they really can't do anything because it's talking about 2050. And so we need three or four governments.'"

Chief executive of the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership Professor Marcia Devlin urged universities to start making changes to their teaching practices and policies now.

"I think we could all do more, and we could all realise the power that we have. There is no 'other'," she said.

"People used to come to me all the time when I was [a deputy vice-chancellor] and say, 'The university needs to do this, and the university needs to do that, and the university needs to do the other.'

"And I [would say], 'Well, who are you talking about? You are the university. I am the university.'"

Student wants vs university priorities

Chief executive of digital career consultant FourthRev Omar de Silva pointed out universities could be missing enrolments because a number of prospective students believe that going to university won't necessarily give them a better career outcome.

"[University research is] all important work, but it's not what the average student's thinking about," he said.

"Many people don't understand that that's not necessarily the university's priority number one, or even two or three, and I think that that creates more challenge."

Ed-tech start-ups are already fighting the equity battle

Overall, discussions shone a light on the importance of student experience, including international student experience, with an understanding that if university enrolments and education outcomes are to improve, attitudes towards and experiences of education overall needs to be more positive.

Chief executive of youth career advice website Year13 Will Stubley said many students are fearful of university, especially those from equity groups; cohorts the Accord says unis need to attract in order to double the number of university-qualified workers by 2050.

Year13 helps year 12 students explore and find a way into higher education through both mainstream and alternative channels.

Mr Stubley said his year 12 surveys show that year on year, more school leavers want to apply to university, but don't because of confusion or a lack of confidence.

"They don't think they're good enough," he said.

"The metric that always rates highest for our surveys is students have a fear of the future, and then you go a little bit deeper on that, and, unfortunately, the ATAR is a massive reason for that."

Mr Stubley explained universities, and start-ups like Year13, need to figure out how to decrease social, intellectual and administrative barriers to university if school leavers are to become more confident in applying.

"If you can deal with that barrier and then [implement] stepping stones - like, you can just get this unit or this skill as an entry point - that's the bridge to get them into higher levels of education." he said.

"It's actually a social issue which provides economic benefit."

Timothy Rennick, student success leader at Georgia State University (GSU) in the US, addressed the Universities Australia Solutions Summit in February, and told how GSU was able to cultivate a sense of belonging for disadvantaged students and break down bureaucratic administrative processes, both issues which are identified as barriers for equity groups getting to university.

Mike Ilczynski is the director of education at SEEK Investment and a global investor in ed-tech and higher education. In this conversation with Martin Betts he shares why he invests in tech, and how that contributes to lifelong learning. Mr Ilczynski says significant growth is waiting for providers willing to be 'tech optimists', like SEEK has been. The episode also covers the opportunities for technology and partnerships to help address some of the challenges facing the Higher Education sector.

My mum was an academic and a hugely passionate one. Consequently, I spent most of my holidays, many evenings, and countless weekends perched beside her at her desk at the Queensland University of Technology Gardens Point campus.

Like any child of a shopkeeper or restauranteur, I spent holidays, weekends and evenings either helping in the family business or doing homework at the corner table. Our family business was academia.

My parents grew up in rural western Queensland, and are the first in their families to attend university. It was a slog for them to get there, and a slog for them to complete their degrees. But both did. They met each other during their years at the University of Queensland, and supported each other to complete their undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, so they could each go on to build solid careers.

They’ve been divorced for 20 years, so it’s not an idyllic romantic tale. But, it is a love story about university. University was the making of both of their lives. It let them dream bigger and opened doors. For my dad, it was his ticket off the land. For my mum, it was her everything.

My mum’s profound appreciation for the transformative impact that university education had on her life led her into academia. This also meant that in her work as an academic, she was deeply committed to helping others have the kind of transformational university experience she’d had.

During my early years and into young adulthood, I would’ve met close to 100 students and colleagues my mum championed and for whom university unequivocally changed their lives. Higher education pulled them out of difficult circumstances and gave them social mobility, cultural capital, diverse connections, and opportunities that wouldn't have been available to them if they had not undertaken higher education.

This is why I thought universities were so magical. I saw first hand how life changing and truly transformative they could be.

I understood that accessing university was more challenging for some people. Still, I believed, for a long time, well into my university career, that once the barriers to access were removed, then the transformation could begin. I didn’t understand that for many people, opening the door to university is just the first barrier, and there are multiple other hurdles from there.

It won’t surprise you to learn that, to date, most of my career has been in universities. I worked for over 10 years in professional staff roles – positions focused on student support, international development, engagement, and events. I then into the academic space for several years as a casual research assistant and tutor.

Looking back now, I am deeply embarrassed at my naiveté and my blinkered, privileged perspective. I always existed in university culture, and tertiary study was just a given, natural next step in my life. I could live at home, work casually and study whatever I was interested in. For many of the early years of my career, even while working directly with students, I still knew very little about the complex, intersectional barriers people face in seeking the educational opportunities that were so readily available to me.

This doesn’t mean that studying at university was easy for me. It was just hard in the right way.

University is meant to be challenging. The content should stretch and provoke minds, expand knowledge, skills, and abilities. University often involves long hours, an annoying commute, and juggling study and work. But these are ‘normal’ challenges – the difficulty and complexity everyone faces when pursuing higher education.

This is not the inequity and systemic exclusion that equity groups - Indigenous Australians, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and people living with disabilities - face, that is intersectional inequity and systemic exclusion.

Universities are aware of inequity and exclusion. Most have substantial equity, diversity, and inclusion policies and committees. Many develop research on migration, social cohesion, economic participation, diversity, and inclusion. And most universities would argue that they exist for the public good.

However, students, staff, and communities from equity groups are not seeing changes from these policies, nor the beneficiaries of this research. They are still struggling to overcome barriers that go further than juggling a casual job and an annoying commute.

Paraphrasing Sally Patfield’s excellent article in The Conversation – access to higher education study is vital, the growing parity of equity groups numbers is ambitious, and developing policies and programs to connect with those equity groups is essential. Those connections might even open the door to a few more prospective students from underrepresented groups. Still, more policies and programs will have little to no impact on equity if the sector is not listening and responding to the needs of these cohorts. It's time to take appropriate action to remove barriers, address inequity, and change the university system.

I will further discuss this at HEDx's ‘Changing Higher Education for Good’ conference in Melbourne on Thursday, alongside my colleague, former University of Melbourne People of Colour Committee officer Mohamed Omer. We are appearing on a panel called ‘Accelerating in our pursuit of social justice and equity’ with several other excellent speakers, thinkers, and innovators who advocate for access and equity across different spaces.

Mohamed and I will speak on issues of systemic racism and exclusion that culturally diverse people (including international students) experience in university education; whether that be accessing uni, balancing studying or seeking post- study support and opportunities.

As universities and the broader higher education sector explore the recommendations of the inclusion-focused Australian Universities Accord, Welcoming Universities recommends that a culture of welcoming all students and cultivating a sense of belonging for disadvantaged cohorts is placed at the centre of all Accord reform efforts.

Welcoming opens the door, invites students in, and helps them overcome hurdles. Belonging is the next step. Belonging ensures that everyone “feels valued, connected and able to be their authentic self”¹.

Through extensive consultation with students and communities facing barriers to accessing, completing, and working in university education, the Welcoming Universities network offers actionable ideas, approaches, and measures of success that puts inclusion at the centre of universities.

My hope is that conversations like the one happening at HEDx next week, along with the work of Welcoming Universities, along with other equity work such as the disability-advocating Universities Enable initiative, will restore the magical possibility of universities I saw as a young person.

I truly believe that university and higher education can be even more transformative if people from all backgrounds and communities are welcomed and allowed to belong.

Cate Gilpin is the coordinator of Welcoming Universities, an organisation that advocates for an inclusive culture in tertiary education where every student is made to feel like they belong. Several universities, including Charles Darwin University, the University of Melbourne, UNSW, the University of Wollongong (UOW) and Western Sydney University have signed up to participate in Welcoming Universities initiatives.

On this episode of HEDx Podcast, Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) director Shamit Saggar joins Martin Betts and co-host Paul Harpur to reflect on equity actions recommended in the Universities Accord.

ACSES is a newly rebranded centre that will collect evidence-based data on disadvantaged and low-socio economic groups, the cohorts the Accord strongly suggested need to have more opportunity to obtain a university qualification.

Strategies developed through its trials will be presented to universities, so they know exactly where to allocate funds to support and attract those student cohorts.

Professor Harpur leads Universities Enable (UE), a disability steering group that offers support to universities in developing disability action plans. UE submitted feedback to the Accord's interim report, advocating for students and prospective students living with disability.

Professor Saggar's and Professor Harpur's reflections on the Accord final report, and the prospects for its implementation in the months and years ahead, provide great insight into what needs to be done to carry out the review's mission of inclusion.

Chief executive of a United States leadership organisation, the Council on Competitiveness, Deborah Wince-Smith sits down with HEDx's Martin Betts in today's episode to discuss technological innovation.

She was a senior U.S. government official, as the first Senate-confirmed assistant secretary for technology policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce, and assistant director for International Affairs in the Reagan White House.

She is spearheading global efforts towards technological transformation in the Universities Research Leadership Forum of the Global Forum for Competitiveness Councils.

The Council on Competitiveness is a coalition of CEOs, university presidents, labor leaders and national laboratory directors, committed to driving U.S. competitiveness.

Live from the foyer of the Universities Australia (UA) Solutions Summit in Canberra, this special episode shares the immediate reactions of tertiary education leaders to the Universities Accord final report.

Featured in this episode are vice-chancellors Deb Terry from the University of Queensland, Renee Leon from Charles Sturt University, Chris Moran from the University of New England, Clare Pollock from Western Sydney University, Simon Biggs from James Cook University, Theo Farrell from La Trobe University and Alex Zelinsky from the University of Newcastle.

Host Martin Betts from HEDx also interviews sector leaders including chief executive of UA Luke Sheehy (pictured), UA former chair John Dewar, higher education commentator Andrew Norton, and others.

The solutions summit ran over two days on February 27 and 28.

How can university leaders promote innovation and growth in a complex multicultural settings while addressing social change with evolving forms of cultural, social and emotional intelligence?

Professor Ghassan Aouad is a Muslim leader and chancellor of Abu Dhabi University in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi University is one of the UAE's leading universities, with over 7000 students of 100 different nationalities.

He talks to HEDx's Martin Betts and Professor Christy Collis of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) about his leadership style.

Prior to taking up his role at Abu Dhabi University, Professor Ghassan Aouad worked at universities across the UK and was president of the University of Wollongong's Dubai campus.

Professor Christy Collis is a counselling researcher and higher education specialist. She is the Queensland treasurer of HERDSA, Australasia's peak professional association for higher education research, and Provost at the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors.

In this podcast chief executive of Year13 Will Stubley joins Melbourne Business School chief learning innovation officer Dr Nora Koslowski and Martin Betts in the HEDx studio to discuss alternative options to the traditional Year 12 to university pipeline.

With the skills the Australian economy needs changing, how can universities keep up to deliver education that is relevant to those changes?

For instance, assuming all bright young students want to study at university might be outdated, and could be one of the reasons why domestic enrolments are declining.

TAFE and vocational education are being mentioned more often in strategies that aim to improve the skills crisis, and their role will likely be discussed in the Universities Accord Final Report.

The vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University, Barney Glover, will begin his new role as the Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia in April (whilst remaining VC of WSU).

His appointment has been criticised by some who question how relevant universities are to the future skills agenda.

The extent of the skills growth needed can't be delivered by universities alone, we discuss how the traditional 'Year 13' expectation might be changing for good.

Will Stubley is the chief executive and co-founder of Year13, a wellbeing and career advice website for young adults. The ed-tech company, that aims to improve the school-to-work transition, was founded after one of Mr Stubley's friends committed suicide due to pressures of finishing school. This tragic event motivated him and his co-founders to grow a business that now helps millions of young Australians plan their careers in a way that best suits them.

Dr Nora Koslowski is the chief learning innovation officer at Melbourne Business School. She is in charge of working with ed-tech startups and industry to power online programs and learning innovations at the school.