HEDx

Valerie Singer leads the Global Education Team at Amazon Web Services, working with universities across more than 200 countries. In this episode, she and Martin talk about the gap between what employers need and what graduates actually bring, why 53% of employers say AI skills are their biggest hiring challenge, and what universities can do right now, this semester, to start closing it. A conversation about applied learning, institutional courage, and what higher education needs to look like in 2030.

Two days of conversations about AI, disruption, and the future of higher education. This is where it ends — and where the real question begins. Did we just talk, or did something actually change? Martin gets put on the spot, Sam says what most people won't about public universities, Sean proposes replacing disruption with construction, and two students close the whole series with something simple: change shouldn't wait until graduation.

Episode 9 of The AI Inflection Point — the last conversation on the student experience.
Most universities will tell you they listen to their students. But listening and actually responding are two very different things.
Jasmine Johnston moderates a panel that gets honest about that gap.
Ghazal Duggal, nursing student at USQ and student representative, on what it feels like to carry the concerns of a whole cohort.
Neave Nagel, President of NUS 2026 and UTS Students Association, on why two students on a university council isn't enough to represent 20,000 people.
Taryn Jones, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Macquarie, on what 8,800 students said when asked not about their classes — but about their lives. Loneliness came up more than anyone expected.
And Michael Henderson from Monash on why student voice only means something if it actually changes decisions.
What is a university without its students? That question sits underneath everything in this episode.

Could undergraduate research help strengthen Australia’s innovation pipeline?
In this Student Experience episode, Dr Sharon Saunders and Ben Roden-Cohen are joined by ACUR leaders Dr Lilia Mantai and Claudia Ghosn to explore how early research experiences build student confidence, capability and career pathways.
They discuss the value of undergraduate research, the barriers limiting participation, and why creating more opportunities for students to engage in authentic research matters for Australia’s future workforce.

Episode 8 of The AI Inflection Point - the second of two conversations on the student experience.
Brandman University went from 65% to 90% graduation rates in five years. Not by adding more services. Just by asking a simple question: what's actually getting in the way for students? The answer wasn't money or motivation. It was time.
Roger Lee brings together four people sitting with that same question every day. Tania Broadley from Australian Catholic University on moving from reactive to proactive student support. Sam Jacob from Coll Arts on why students once asked for a laundry before any academic resource. Alphia Possamai-Inesedy from Western Sydney University on why adding services to an old system isn't enough - the architecture itself needs to change. And Jennifer Lowe, student and co-chair of the National Students with Disabilities Leadership Collective, on why the real problem isn't equity students. It's institutions that were never designed to include everyone.