Future Campus

With the Parliamentary year running short, the Government is tight for time to pass the quotas bill as is, or negotiate amendments with the Opposition. And with a handful of months before Semester 1 begins, it risks chaos and accusations of mishandling if it does not achieve a solution rapidly. Read more about it in our latest article. #FutureCampus #HigherEducation #HE #HENews #InternationalStudents #InternationalEducation #StudentCaps

We had an amazing time connecting with you all at HE Fest 24. Check out some of the highlights of our event with our very stephen matchett. HE Fest will be back next bigger and better than ever! #HEFest24 #HigherEd #HigherEducation #FutureCampus

Tim Winkler brings insights from HE FEST 24: Everything you never wanted to know about being a first-time conference organiser. The difference between a friend and a close friend is that the close friend will help you move a body, UNSW’s Professor Merlin Crossley told the HEFEST 24 last week. The definition was part of a wider discussion about what makes a great student experience, but is equally relevant to what makes a great conference. Engagements that we value have to have an element of working not just at scale, but also in intimate groups, creating synergy and connection with individuals or small groups of new close friends. I came up with the idea of HE FEST after the demise of other conferences focused on HE marketing and comms in Australia. It’s the first conference I have organised and our tiny band of volunteers did the whole thing, with valiant assistance of our hosts at UniSA. It was only after the conference ended that I had realised: A. It was a great success (albeit with numerous teething problems which we will fix next year). B. Bizarrely, even though I had tortured myself with organisational logistics for months, the success had very little to do with me. It was only close up to the speakers and watching the engagement of the participants that I realised all the power of the event came from the commitment and contribution of the others in the room. No false humility here – it had very little to do with me. I have put together some thoughts along with five quick insights that I learned from spending six volunteer months bringing a conference together. #HEFEST24

Recognising the challenges for academic staff to start using AI to aid their teaching, the University of Sydney have developed a tool called Cogniti, which has been shortlisted for the 2024 Future Campus Best Use of AI in Learning and Teaching award. Professor Danny Liu worked with the University’s ICT team, educational designers and academics from across the institution to develop the project, with goals of democratising access to advanced AI tools and enhancing teaching and learning experience. The Cogniti platform allows educators to access frontier AI models like GPT-4 through a user-friendly web interface, eliminating the where-do-i-start entropy that has stymied many staff from incorporating generative AI into their courses. The platform allows educators to develop AI-driven resources specific to their units and students. “It lowers barriers to adoption and increases trust in AI,” Professor Liu said. The platform rollout has been highly successful, with more than 1,100 agents created by 530 teachers across 46 institutions. Cogniti has facilitated 57,000 conversations with more than 13,500 students, with very positive feedback from users. Summary pages of questions asked by students also help educators understand key learning pain points. Cogniti has been implemented nationally and internationally at a wide range of universities and aligns with the University’s digital strategy. Learn more about Cogniti through a two-minute video about the project: https://loom.ly/Vj9G4Ug #FutureCampusAwards #HEFest24 #FutureCampus #HigherEducation #HENEWS

An AI-assisted educational chatbot has fostered a dynamic, more personalised learning experience for students in large statistics classes. The University of Melbourne’s Dr Wasana Karunarathne’s StatBot project has been shortlisted for the 2024 Future Campus Best Use of AI in Learning and Teaching award, for promoting inclusivity, managing the different learning needs and backgrounds of students through AI while also providing equitable access to resources and support. With enrolments in some classes topping 1,000, the Melbourne team collaborated with colleagues at the University of Auckland, IBM and ISW to develop a bot to provide student-specific support. “Many, particularly our international students, are not inclined to ask questions for fear of embarrassment,” Dr Karunarathne states. “Unlike generic chatbots, Statbot provides tailored support for each subject and student by leveraging Generative AI models trained specifically on course materials. This approach fosters a more inclusive learning environment which accommodates for the diverse needs of both domestic and international students.” The introduction of StatBot resulted in increased student engagement and provided a useful revision tool, promoting self-regulated learning. Learn more about StatBot through a two-minute video about the project: https://loom.ly/AoH3V5g #FutureCampusAwards #HEFest24 #FutureCampus #HigherEducation #HENEWS

An innovative project which recognised the importance of human factors in rolling out the use of AI in curriculum has been shortlisted for the Future Campus AI in Learning and Teaching Award 2024. A team from Deakin University’s Faculty of Health partnered with curriculum designers and other collaborators from across the university to develop a program-wide approach to preparing health graduates for a genAI enriched world. The project had a clear focus on giving health students experience in using AI effectively, but was particularly successful because it also took into account the need for a collaborative co-design process to reassure staff “who were initially fearful and anxious about genAI.” The team reported a range of insights from the project: • Developing curriculum for genAI requires leadership, supportive culture, and time and resources. • Staff require continuous professional development to maintain their genAI literacy and skills, and seek examples of assessment transformation to guide them. • It empowers staff and students to take an educative, not prohibitive approach to genAI • It is challenging but possible to address academic integrity concerns while developing students’ capabilities in genAI. • Students learnt to be critical of genAI outputs (“Do not trust AI!” -student feedback) • Students greatly valued learning about and using genAI and want clear guidance about acceptable use. The project has developed an evidence base which has informed the rollout of AI across the Health Faculty and has informed the University’s AI approach. Recognising the importance of AI skills in the quiver of capabilities gained by graduates, the program has also informed the development of the University’s Education and Employability plan More insights about the project can be found in a two minute video about the project: https://loom.ly/Q8vXctU #FutureCampusAwards #HEFest24 #FutureCampus #HigherEducation #HENEWS

🚀 7 Days to Go! 🚀   Get ready for a groundbreaking conference as we count down the days to the HE Fest 24!   With an incredible lineup of speakers, we will be diving deep into the latest caps since their release by Jason Clare, hosting a major workshop focused on reclaiming the public's trust and much much more!   Our speakers include: Xavier Amouroux, Karen Ashford, Rufus Black, Bev Bury, Ant Bagshaw, David Coltman, Michael A. Cowling, Sarah Cutbush GAICD, Ray Fleming, Benjamin Grindlay, Chamalee Karunanayake, Eddie Major, stephen matchett, Rory McLean, Professor Maree Meredith, Lou Morrissey, Andrew Norton, Franzi Pranke, Eric Knight, George Williams, Merlin Crossley, Kim Paino, Mark Sampson, Prof Raj Shekhawat PFHEA GAICD TEDx Speaker and Tim Winkler.   Don't miss out - join the conversation and grab your tickets today! www.hefest.com.au #HEFest24 #FutureCampus #FutureCampusAwards #HENews #HigherEducation #HEConference

Piggybacking on one of the year’s most talked-about events, RMIT University’s Taylor Swift Fanposium is a great example of opportunistic communications – and has been shortlisted for the Future Campus 2024 Communications Campaign of the Year. Academic and professional staff from across RMIT collaborated with partner universities and the music industry to develop an event at Melbourne’s Capitol Theatre engaging Swifties with music and cultural expertise. The 500-seat event was booked out within 24 hours, and was covered by AFP, BBC and ran across many Australian newspaper, TV and radio outlets. The Fanposium demonstrates that public lectures and engagement can drive strong outcomes for higher education institutions when syncronised by bringing events to the public’s doorstep. View the Taylor Swift Fanposium video: https://loom.ly/3eV4clI #FutureCampusAwards #HEFest24 #FutureCampus #HigherEducation #HENEWS

Monash University has been able to achieve retention of 91% of Indigenous staff hired through the University’s Indigenous Graduate Program, with the program shortlisted for the Future Campus 2024 University Recruitment Campaign of the Year. Indigenous Graduate Program Coordinator Mr Will Sullivan said the program was developed with internal and external stakeholders to strengthen the representation of Indigenous staff, with participants involved in fortnightly professional development workshops, undertaking a cultural exchange process together, attending an on Country experience and attending an international Monash campus to complete an intercultural competencies course. The program has facilitated the appointment of 24 Indigenous staff across the University, increasing Indigenous employment by 20%, demonstrating an approach which will be of interest to higher education institutions across the country as they seek to grow their First Nations workforce. Learn more about the program here: https://loom.ly/dHiJfg4 #FutureCampusAwards #HEFest24 #FutureCampus #HigherEducation #HENEWS

In a triumph of circumstance over planning, the only conference for Australia’s higher education thought leaders, marketers and strategists will take on new significance, examining the sector’s future narrative in the wake of yesterday’s caps decision. HE FEST has attracted leading professional staff as well as academic leaders from both HE and VET, offering a unique opportunity to reconsider the nation’s tertiary narrative. HE FEST is much more than a conference. Each speaker will be interviewed and open to q and a from the floor, and in recognition of the sector’s apparent need to improve its community standing (or ‘social licence’ as Education Minister Clare likes to call it) we are shaping an interactive workshop-style megasession called Pitch to Australia led by one of Australia’s leading creative minds, Rory McLean. The session will begin with insights from literally Australia’s newest institutional marketing leader, Eric Knight, who will take the helm of Macquarie’s marketing and workforce strategy as DVC (People and Operations) within days of appearing at the conference. Eric has had remarkable success engaging the business community as Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School and brings an extraordinary breadth of knowledge to the table. Straight after lunch, George Williams, the Vice-Chancellor of Western Sydney University has carved time out of his diary to beam into the conference and will expand on why he is leading the calls to rethink the way the sector presents itself to the community. Professor Maree Meredith, the Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous from University of Canberra will also provide perspectives on what we can learn from best-practice Indigenous community engagement. The session will culminate in a forum to co-create key elements of the ‘pitch to Australia’ – seeking to take steps forward in demonstrating relevance and value to the public. We are seeking to craft a new way of meeting. A conference that allows networking, but also a level of engagement that draws energy and insight from the room. Sounds all a bit hard? Too ambitious? Maybe, but now the sector needs ambition more than it has in a generation. We aim to create the bones of something. It could be a brief, it could be some creative, it could be just a few killer points that could help the sector be seen and heard the way it wishes to be. But after the last couple of months, anything that takes us forward in being more highly valued by the community has got to be worthwhile don’t you think? The new (hopefully almost final) program for HE FEST is out today. A limited number of tickets are still available. https://loom.ly/iJPV3p0 #HEFest24 #HigherEducation #HE #HENews #FutureCampus #UniSA