HEDx

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 domestic and international students, onshore, offshore and online. And with a model for funding research that is independent of government policy, is this the future for Australian higher education?

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 of the tropics. And she outlines ways in which differentiation could be possible for other new leaders and universities in the period ahead through pursuing teaching excellence and online opportunities. And she sees wisdom in turning these into the best of times and foolishness in thinking former times will ever return.

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 to differentiate through digital disruption and with how technology and empathy for people can allow new expectations to be met by a sector whose time she sees as full of opportunity.

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 importance of shaping culture and getting staff on board with change at these most difficult of times.

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 foreshadows a focus on partnerships, forging them is emerging as a priority for all in the sector.

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 strategy to be delivered, and her concern for staff in adapting to change. The episode illustrates the importance of alignment of brand and strategy. And it demonstrates clearly the critically important place of culture shaping, alongside leadership development, in allowing a brand and strategy to be delivered and experienced.

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 will continue to provide an opportunity for place-based strategies and major forays into the very competitive global online markets. But his message to the sector, in one of his first public statements as UA Chair, is to pay tribute to the culture change and skills development that has taken place sector-wide whilst recognising how much further there is still to travel.

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 emotional labour of leading universities is exposed to smart bullying upwards by independent academics that has accentuated during the pandemic.

A topic of great interest in many Australian universities as change programs, returns to work, and continued financial pressures make these the most difficult times to lead. They contrast with different experiences in Australian business which offer lessons university leaders might need to learn from, and quickly.

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 episode gives a sharp, specific and timely insight into the importance of leaders building great culture in universities and how this is even more important in a post covid world.

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 to equitable access for all students in doing this well. He fears many other academics were less well prepared for this change and remain so.

He believes there is more that universities can do to support staff in 2021 and beyond to transition to become skilled in engaging and communicating with students in learning with technology. He believes more investment is required to make this happen but that the biggest barrier is a lack of leadership and vision. He calls for more universities and leaders to see this as an opportunity rather than a challenge.