Cate Gilpin Coordinator of Welcoming Universities and Mohamed Omer formerly the University of Melbourne People of Colour Department Officer, share their experiences of what it feels like to be a person of colour on campuses of Australian universities. As O Week is underway across all universities, and we celebrate how welcoming we think and promote that they are, does this hold true for all the diverse students we need and who need us? And what can leaders, institutions and groups like Welcoming Universities do to improve how we do?

Professor Nick Jennings VC at Loughborough University joins Andrea Burrows UK MD of OES and I. We argue that we need more leaders that can practice the art of Kiki. It would be easy at the start of 2024 for leaders to be overcome by the sense of danger and to be blinded from seeing opportunity.  Is the all-staff email to start the year in your university a trigger from leadership that will spiral a fragile culture and mood downwards? What is most needed is a response that stirs an ethical and rational approach to seeking opportunities.

Martin Betts as co-founder of HEDx is the guest interviewed by Dr Ant Bagshaw on the 100th episode. The conversation covers the rationale of HEDx and its purpose of changing higher education for good as a response to the challenges of inequities in race, gender and class that pervade the sector. And it explores the new opportunities for transformation created by technological advances, demand changes, and new partnership opportunities that offer the potential for the HEDx purpose to be realised with an expansion of activities, partnerships and events to a global stage.

Professor Eric Knight, Executive Dean of the Macquarie Business School, shares why and how they worked with Mandala partners to measure how they and other universities perform in helping equity groups gain employment from business education. Applying research expertise and new data, it demonstrates an appropriate alternative to university rankings in informing student choice, benchmarking performance and learning how to improve in measures at the heart of forthcoming policy change.

Professor Adrian Barnett of QUT and Dr Elizabeth Gadd of Loughborough University join the podcast to share their expertise in research assessment and university rankings in arguing for universities to differentiate and promote themselves as more than a meaningless rank. Listen for an unambiguous and authoritative despatching of the worthlessness of university rankings and how they are a barrier to changing higher education for good.

Siobhan Savage as CEO of Reejig joins Dr Nora Koslowski of MBS and I in the HEDx studio to describe the changes in the world of work. Improving the matching of employers' skills needs with workers' skills profiles is creating a lifelong learning revolution. The new revenue opportunities for tertiary education providers are extraordinary. Will our existing universities take advantage or miss out to competition from others?

Professor Aleks Subic as Vice Chancellor of Aston University unveils the new "Aston 2030" strategy from the heartland of the first industrial revolution. Partnerships with tech companies that are driving Industry 4.0 are central to plans to bring Higher Education 4.0 to the inclusive and transformational benefit of all.

Professor Martin Bean of the Bean Centre joins the podcast with co-host Sue Kokonis Chief Academic Officer of OES to discuss his new book "Toolkit for Turbulence" with practical advice for leaders managing ambiguity in higher education.

Professor Ann Kirschner, Interim President of Hunter College at City University of New York shares thoughts of how far all universities are away from omni-channel delivery of learning as she considers responses being considered to the Great Upheaval in Higher Education.

Brandon Busteed Global Head of Partnerships for Kaplan joins the podcast to discuss the changing value proposition and sentiment towards higher education and how this is creating a growing focus on lifelong learning.  He outlines how universities, employers and those facilitating relationships between them, are ensuring higher education meets students where they are at, not where we ask them to be.