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?

At last week's HEDx conference in Melbourne, Michael Crow from Arizona State University shared the equity and inclusion initiatives his university has implemented to increase the number of disadvantaged student enrolments.

This was followed by an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) panel on the feasibility of implementing these EDI strategies in Australia.

The panel included civil rights researcher and disability advocate Professor Paul Harpur, psychologist and expert on higher education equity Professor Marcia Devlin, peer mentoring app Vygo co-founder Joel di Trapani, Welcoming Universities coordinator Cate Gilpin, and university race equality advocate Mohamed Omer.

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

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.

"You are a spokesperson, not an answer person. You're there to answer questions and deliver your key messages."

Theresa Miller

How can academics excel in media interviews, gain success in grant applications, and better communicate at conferences or on panels?

Media and presentation skills trainer Theresa Miller and Campus Review education editor Erin Morley sit down to discuss how academics can best represent their research to the media.

Theresa Miller is the director of TM Media Training and has over 30 years experience in media. She is passionate about helping academics and subject matter experts share their stories and research with audiences, and wants to encourage more women to step up to the microphone, too. As an MC and panel moderator, author, former journalist and former media advisor, Theresa feels she has the experience to help academics and business leaders master their message and promote their cause. 

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.

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.

In this episode, the vice-chancellor of the UK University of East Anglia, David Maguire, joins UK director of Online Education Services, Andrea Burrows, to give an overview of the current university financial crisis in the UK. 

Universities in the United Kingdom are struggling to afford to enrol their own home students ever since tuition fees were frozen in 2017 at £9,250 a year despite a growing 18-year-old cohort, rising inflation and increasing teaching costs.

Professor Maguire has worked at at eight universities since starting his career, and been vice-chancellor at four since 2017, when tuition fees were frozen.

He suggests one reason a university might fail financially is when its student numbers are falling faster than its competitors, damaging its reputation.

To overcome this, universities need to find a point of differentiation to avoid relying on a perception of prestige. His own university lives by the motto 'do different'.

Professor David Maguire is the vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia in the UK. He has researched and worked in the fields of geographic information systems and higher education policy. The professor was vice-chancellor of the University of Greenwich from 2011 to 2019, interim vice-chancellor of the University of Dundee in 2020 and at the University of Sussex from 2021-2022.

Andrea Burrows is the UK managing director for Online Education Services (OES), an education body that partners with universities across Britain and Europe to create 'student-centric' online learning. She has a professional leadership background in marketing, advertising and digital transformation across higher education, finance and professional service sectors.

The Universities Accord Interim Report released in early January recommended five priorities for action, one of which was the need for better university governance – through state and territory government and university collaboration– to improve student staff and safety on campus.

Last November, education ministers released a draft Action Plan addressing gender-based violence in higher education, which outlined the roles each university stakeholder needs to play to change the culture of sexual assault on university campuses, and recommended seven 'actions' to drive that change.

Expert in campus sexual violence Dr Allison Henry joins Campus Review's education editor Erin Morley to discuss the issue of sexual assault and harassment on campus, and shares the findings of her recent PhD thesis, which investigated regulatory responses to sexual violence on campus.

Her findings reveal the lack of action from regulatory bodies like the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), the effect of fluctuating political interest from different education ministers and federal governments, an absence of independent investigation into reporting processes, and the "performative" nature of anti-sexual violence university's campaigns.

The Universities Accord Final Report is due this month, which along with the draft Action Plan, will drive reform and change to sexual violence in university settings.

Dr Allison Henry is a research fellow and associate with the University of New South Wales Australian Human Rights Institute. She completed her PhD on 'Regulatory responses to sexual assault and sexual harassment in Australian university settings’ in May 2023. Her previous roles include three years as the managing editor of the Australian Journal of Human Rights, five years as a Ministerial advisor in the federal parliament and three years as National Director of the Australian Republican Movement. Dr Henry was also a member of the Department of Education's Gender-based Violence Stakeholder Reference Group.

This episode was hosted, written and produced by Campus Review's education editor, Erin Morley.