EdVance

Are universities failing worldwide?

Between rising student debt, shrinking budgets, and shifting job markets, higher education is under severe pressure.

In this episode of the #EdVance Podcast, Professor Sue Rigby, Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University, makes a bold case for institutional reform.

Moving from palaeontology research into university executive leadership, Professor Rigby breaks down why traditional university models no longer work, how to fix financial foundations without losing academic values, and what it really takes to lead exhausted teams through massive change.

Can schools really achieve high performance without putting staff wellbeing first?

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Alan Williamson, CEO of Taaleem, one of the UAE’s largest education groups, shares what decades in education have taught him about building great schools. He explores why relationships, culture and exceptional teachers sit at the heart of school success, and why wellbeing and performance are far more connected than many leaders assume.

He also shares his views on AI and technology, preparing young people for the future of work, and leading through uncertainty. For Alan, great leadership means choosing optimism, building people and making decisions with an eye for tomorrow.

Download, subscribe and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world’s most influential education leaders.

Corporate playbooks may work in business, but do they work in schools?

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Dr Navin Valrani, CEO of Arcadia Education, reflects on his journey from the corporate world to educational leadership and what it has taught him about building great schools. He explores why standardisation has its limits, why leaders need to understand the individual journeys of the people they lead, and how to create environments where teachers and students thrive.

He also reflects on what high performance really requires from leaders, and what should drive anyone thinking of starting a school. His advice is clear: do not start one for the money.

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You can have the best ideas, the best strategies and the best people and still fail to transform an education system. So what is the missing piece?

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Iwan Syahril, former Director General at Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Senior Advisor at Teach For All, reflects on what it really takes to lead education reform at scale. Drawing on his experience leading change across a system serving more than 53 million students, Iwan shares what leaders need to understand about purpose, people and the human side of transformation.

He explores what makes a great school, how we can build a stronger teaching profession, why change cannot simply be mandated, and how leaders can empower people to become change agents. The conversation also examines innovation, technology and AI in education, and why technology matters most when it helps solve problems that actually matter.

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Schools know how to measure achievement. They are much less certain how to help young people understand themselves. That gap may help explain why so many leave school with impressive results but little confidence about the path ahead.

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Devi Sahny, CEO of Ascend Now and The Edge, draws on her experience supporting more than 500,000 students across five continents to explore how schools can help every learner develop the confidence, self-awareness, and sense of purpose needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

She explains why student voice should shape school improvement, why leaders should resist chasing every new trend, how AI is exposing long-standing weaknesses in education, why mentorship is becoming increasingly important, and the leadership principles behind building two globally recognised education ventures.

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India has one of the world's largest education systems, yet millions of children still learn through textbooks, blackboards, and memorisation. Everyone knows it has to change. Changing it in every classroom is the hard part.

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Smita Deorah, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of LEAD Group, shares how her organisation built one of India's largest integrated school learning systems, partnering with around 9,000 schools and serving over four million students across India.

She explains why standardisation is not the answer to scaling quality, why teacher education needs a complete rethink, what schools are getting wrong about AI, and the leadership principles that have shaped one of the world's largest school learning systems.

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Education is one of the only sectors where a failed product doesn't cost money. It costs a child a year of learning they never get back.

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Hernan Carranza, Chief Innovation Officer at Intercorp, shares how he helped grow Innova Schools into the largest K–12 private school network in Spanish-speaking Latin America, and what it took to innovate inside a sector with almost no margin for error.

He built an AI tool in-house for teachers and tested a new personalised learning model in a smaller market before scaling it, choosing small experiments over big rollouts at every step. Hernan explains why strategy can never be handed off to outside consultants.

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China has over 13 million students sitting for the Gaokao every year - a university entrance exam so competitive that a single score can shape a student's future. Behind China's world-leading academic results is a system where parents, teachers, and school leaders work together to ensure every child succeeds. But that success often comes with immense pressure.

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Shiny Wang, Vice Principal of Beijing No. 4 High School, International Campus, shares how one of China's most prestigious schools is rethinking what success means. From future-focused learning and cross-disciplinary innovation to projects built around real-world challenges, he explains how schools can prepare students not only for exams, but for life.

Shiny reveals what the world often misunderstands about Chinese classrooms, how schools and families partner to support student achievement, and why helping young people overcome perfectionism may be one of the most important responsibilities teachers have today.

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Brazil has 1.7 million public school teachers. Most of them start their careers underprepared, walk into classrooms of students with multiple learning profiles, and are left to figure it out alone.

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Ana Ligia Scachetti, Executive Director of Nova Escola, makes the case for what it will take to change that. Under her leadership, Nova Escola has grown from a printed magazine into a digital platform reaching one million teachers every month across Brazil. Their AI assistant built on WhatsApp has now reached 200,000 educators, including teachers in the most remote corners of the Amazon.

Ana reveals why teacher support in Brazil has failed for decades, how one state produced 70% of the country's best schools, and why the most powerful thing a school leader can do is simply believe their students can run the world.

Building a school culture that outlasts generations is a decision made every single day. Institut Le Rosey has been making it for 146 years, and the alumni it produces have taken that culture into some of the most consequential rooms in the world.

In this episode of the EdVance Podcast, Christophe Gudin, Director General of Institut Le Rosey, is clear about what is happening to education and who is letting it happen. What begins as a conversation about phones in schools quickly becomes a harder question about ownership: who decides what children learn, in what order, and through whose lens, and why that decision is drifting quietly toward EdTech companies that have never taught a child.

He leads a school where no single country ever accounts for more than 10% of the student body, teachers live on campus with their families, and the entire school relocates to the mountains every winter. Every one of those decisions keeps education in the hands of the people closest to children. Christophe knows what happens to schools that hand that responsibility to someone else.

Download, subscribe, and share the EdVance Podcast for conversations with the world's most influential education leaders.