What now? What next? Insights into Australia's tertiary education sector
Claire Field talks with leaders and experts from within the Australian tertiary education sector and across the global ed-tech sector
Episodes
In this episode of the podcast Claire explores the sector's response to the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026.
Claire examines the key evidence given by representatives from across the sector who appeared before the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee on Monday 24 August 2026.
The Senate Committee is due to hand down its final report on the legislation on 3 September 2026 - it will be ...
In this episode Claire is joined by the CEO of Powering Skills Organisation, Anthea Middleton, to discuss skills for the energy sector and the changes happening within it. As Claire notes in her introduction to this episode - energy is the second major transition (alongside AI/technology) the Australian economy is going through and she welcomes more voices on the podcast to discuss the skills transition that's happening in energy (...
In this episode of the podcast Claire spoke with Natalie Turmine, CEO of Service and Creative Skills Australia (SaCSA) and Emma King OAM, CEO of HumanAbility, who head up the Jobs and Skills Councils responsible for:
- Arts, Personal Services, Retail, Tourism and Hospitality (SaCSA), and
- Aged and Disability, Children’s Education and Care, Health, Human Services, Sport and Recreation (HumanAbility)
In their discussion Emma...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Prof. Michelle Trudgett, DVC Indigenous Leadership, Western Sydney University.
Here are the links mentioned in the interview:
- Know your worth: valuing Indigenous leadership positions in
Australian higher education https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2026.2670000 - Indigenous Centre of Excellence at Western Sydney University: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/western-growth/icoe
- M...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Alex White, the CEO of the Victorian TAFE Association, to discuss a new research report and Alex's broader insights into VET and the public TAFE sector.
The VTA's new TAFE Employment Outcomes report is available on their website: https://vta.vic.edu.au/employment-outcomes-report/
Contact Claire:
- Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
- Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.socia...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by the founder and CEO of Voyage, Matthew Donlon, to discuss student perceptions of and questions about studying in Australia, how they are reacting to conflict and global uncertainty and what they want from institutions as AI reshapes the graduate jobs market.
The Voyage website is: https://myvoyage.io/app/thesocialsource
And details of the the recent change made by the UK governm...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Prof. Phillip Dawson from CRADLE at Deakin University. During the episode you'll hear them mention the following resources:
- The Castlereagh Statement: https://castlereagh.ai/
- Research on academic cheating by Prof. Guy Curtis and colleagues: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40979-026-00215-z (open access)
- Prof. Dawson's LinkedIn post with the AI glasses: ht...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Rishen Shekhar to discuss his experiences in the Australian international education sector and where it needs to head to next.
Here are links to some of the articles and reports Rishen discusses:
- Jon Chew 'Implications of rising inexplicable student visa rejections' https://thekoalanews.com/implications-of-rising-inexplicable-student-visa-rejections/IEAA Agent Quality Research Pr...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Prof. Kevin Ashford-Rowe, Pro Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching at QUT and Dr Erin Jancauskas, Chief Academic and Partnerships Officer at Online Education Services (OES) to discuss how we can assure learning and encourage aspiration as AI transforms teaching and learning.
In the episode they discuss the following reports and articles:
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by three senior leaders at the Analytics Institute of Australia (Pankaj Goel, Sarthak Goel and Rolf Baum) to learn about what it's like leading an international private higher education provider as the sector goes through a number of policy changes, as well as educating and preparing students for work in an AI-era.
During the interview - Sarthak references TEQSA's new Revised Academic ...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by the CEO of Canberra Institute of Technology, Dr Margot McNeill, to discuss some of the key reforms in VET including:
- TAFE Centres of Excellence
- National Qualifications Reform
- the National TAFE Network
- women in leadership, and
- why we need to shift from RPL to "recognition of prior experience".
Contact Claire:
- Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
- Follow me on Bluesky:...
In this episode Claire is joined by Prof. Michael Wesley, Deputy Vice Chancellor Global, Culture and Engagement at the University of Melbourne to hear his views on what's happening in Australian higher education from both a domestic and international perspective.
In her introduction to the episode Claire briefly reflects on the recent Senate Committee hearing into the legislation to introduce the new Australian Tertiary Education Co...
In this episode of the podcast Claire unpacks all of the submissions to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee's inquiry into the "Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 and a related bill".
If you want to read any of the submissions you'll find them on the Senate website: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/ATEC2025/Submissions...
In this episode of the podcast Claire shares insights from three recent events she's attended:
- GITEX Global where she learned about: the Canadian government's approach to "sovereignty not solitude" in an era of AI, and Canada's LLM (Cohere), the new Open University of Kenya, Estonia's successful digital economy, the UAE's LLM (Falcon), the Abu Dhabi government's TAMM app, G42's Global AI Institute with Microsoft, Abu Dhabi's Tec...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Distinguished Prof. Keith Dowding and Dr Marija Taflaga from the Australian National University - with some answers to the problems of university governance.
In the episode you'll here references to:
- the paper Dr Taflaga, Dr Markham and Prof Dowding recently published: https://doi.org/10.25911/MWW4-9781
- their submission to the Senate Inquiry into University Governance is subm...
In this episode, Claire is joined by by Bala Subra, TAFE NSW IT Program Development and Management to discuss their use of a new AI tool, Maya, as a team teacher supporting student learning.
In the episode Claire refers to the following resources which listeners working in the VET sector will find particularly useful if you haven't come across them before:
- TEQSA's GenAI knowledge hub: https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resource...
In this episode Claire is joined by Shae McGregor, Pathways Course Transitions Manager at TAFE Gippsland to discuss some phenomenal work they are doing to help learners experiencing intersectional disadvantage to make profound changes to their lives.
Contact Claire:
- Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
- Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
- Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
- Email me at: ad...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by the Vice Chancellor of the University of New England, Prof. Chris Moran to discuss the work UNE is doing to engage and support students from less privileged backgrounds to consider university study and find a place at UNE despite many not having an ATAR.
During the conversation Claire referred to this new report from Jobs and Skills Australia: https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/resear...
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Dr Tabatha Griffin from the NCVER and Tamie Cousins and Elcin Gul from Melbourne Polytechnic to discuss the next generation of VET educators and the support they need to be great educators.
Recent research Dr Griffin has undertaken with her colleagues at the NCVER on the VET workforce, teaching, and learning includes:
Dr Julia Anaf explains the impact on staff health of the way universities operate (and so much more)
In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Dr Julia Anaf from Stretton Health Equity, at the University of Adelaide to discuss the Stretton Health Equity submission to the Senate inquiry into university governance and why university leaders need to be paying much more attention to the psychosocial safety of their staff - particularly as they restructure.
During the podcast Dr Anaf discusses:
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