This month, our campus becomes the centre of a national conversation about the future of higher education. The HEDx Disruption Through Connections conference lands at UTS on 16-17 June 2026, bringing together university leaders, educators, employers and students from across Australia and beyond to grapple with a sector-defining question: how do we create University 2.0 and learning that is truly fit for the future?
Student voices are woven throughout, alongside our UTS colleagues and a speaker lineup that includes Scott Pulsipher (President of Western Governors University, one of the world’s most innovative online-first universities), leaders from Microsoft, Adobe and AWS, and VCs, educators and researchers from institutions across Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK.
The conference is a great opportunity to engage with colleagues whose work is shaping the direction of our institution, and to hear how peers at other universities are responding to the same pressures we face every day.
Connecting across 5 conference themes
The HEDx conference is built around 5 themes that reflect the pressures of a sector which is increasingly driven by AI, shifting student demographics, questions of social equity and relevance, and the blurring boundaries between vocational and university learning:
Connecting people and systems looks at how universities can redesign the student and staff experience, embedding flexibility, addressing student poverty and wellbeing, and rethinking how institutions use technology and shared services to redirect resources toward learning.
Connecting pathways to learning asks how higher education can rebuild public trust by demonstrating social value. That means stronger alignment with TAFE and VET, expanded lifelong learning pathways, and moving the measure of institutional worth from rankings to genuine community impact.
Connecting with students and employers challenges the traditional top-down curriculum model. In an AI age, educators need to act as mentors and co-designers, building learning experiences with students and industry, not just for them.
Connecting with AI and technology goes beyond the on-campus/ online debate. The focus here is on designing seamless, high-quality experiences across all modes of learning and how institutions can keep pace with the disruption that AI is already delivering, drawing on global practice from the US, UK, Italy and Singapore.
Connecting with global partners looks at how universities can build the institutional courage and risk tolerance needed for genuine transformation, and how global collaboration and innovation sandboxes can support leaders navigating ambitious change.
What to expect
The full conference program spans keynote talks, panel discussions, intimate conversations and interactive workshops. Several of our colleagues are featured speakers, including Kylie Readman (DVC Education and Students), Robynne Quiggin AO (Pro-Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Leadership and Engagement), and Alana Piper (DVC External Engagement and Partnerships).
Other sessions where you can hear from UTS colleagues include:
- AUS-HE collective intelligence hub (workshop) – Simon Buckingham Shum (Connected Intelligence Centre) and Jan McLean (Teaching Learning and Curriculum Unit)
- Applied learning with employers (keynote) – Edward Santow (Human Technology Institute)
- AI literacy in knowledge curation (workshop) – Jami Emerson (AI Specialist)
- Teaching for public good (workshop) – Amanda White (Business School)
It’s rare to have a conference of this calibre take place on your own campus. Whether you work in learning design, student services, technology, policy, research or administration, the themes running through this conference are ones that directly shape your work.
Win a ticket to HEDx Sydney 2026!
Are you interested in the future of higher education, learning, AI or the future of work? UTS staff can apply to win a ticket to the HEDx conference by answering a few quick questions. Applications close 5 June 2026 at 11:45pm AEST.