I am delighted to launch a new venture with Karl Treacher of advisory services to the higher education sector. The venture is called HEDx which stands for the higher education experience. The services are launched at hedx.com.au and are accompanied by a podcast series called HEDx available for subscription on Spotify and Apple.
HEDx is focussed on the changing landscape of higher education. The podcast series investigates views, opinions and experiences across the sector. Every episode has a range of guests from academic and professional through to industry leaders as the sector moves through these unprecedented times.
The first podcast introduces the series and has guest Professor Debbie Haski-Levanthal of Macquarie Business School talk of her new book The Purpose Driven University.
HEDx services are of an industry-specific consultancy for the higher education sector. The new offering will deliver strategic advisory services to executives of universities and other tertiary education institutions to facilitate and support their now critical transition into the post-Covid world.
As a former Deputy Vice Chancellor, now Emeritus Professor of Queensland’s Griffith University, I am looking to harness more than 40 years of experience in both academic and leadership roles in universities around the world. I am working together with The Brand Institute’s CEO, Karl Treacher, who brings more than 20 years of experience consulting to some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Microsoft, Google, Bupa, NAB, REA Group and Macquarie Bank.
“Higher education institutions have undergone unprecedented disruption in the last six months, demanding innovative leadership, new revenue streams, improved student recruitment and the refining and stabilisation of on-campus culture in order to secure their futures into 2021 and beyond,” said Professor Martin Betts.
“The absence of income from international students that underpinned university budgets for decades, together with continued Federal government policy changes, have placed responsibility for financial performance fairly and squarely with the higher education entity itself. Add to this that the experience of staff and students in moving to an almost entirely online form of higher education experience and you've got a mode of operating that nobody was prepared for and that has changed the sector for good,” he said.
“Every university in the country is under enormous pressure trying to substantially reduce costs to account for lost revenue streams, while pivoting to an entirely new way of delivering educational experiences to students,” said The Brand Institute CEO, Karl Treacher.
“We’ve helped many organisations from other industries cope with and leverage disruption, and for the first time, we’ll be applying proven best-practice culture, reputation-shaping and transformation solutions from the corporate world to higher education institutions, with an immediate focus on shaping new business models, steering transformation and improving student, staff and stakeholder experiences,” he said.
Treacher believes that now is the time for innovators and fast-movers in the industry to stand out from the crowd and take the lead. “HEDx is here to add the bandwidth, expertise and new ways of thinking required to stabilise universities through this dramatic change, while presenting new offerings to combat some of the losses they’re experiencing through decreased international student numbers,” he said.
“Every university has to find a more compelling market position and a differentiated value proposition, and in a hurry,” says Professor Betts “Traditional consulting models won’t deliver what’s required within the given time frame and HEDx is here to move swiftly and decisively to cement the viability and profitability of Australia’s higher education entities.”
Welcome to HEDx
