What Australian higher education should be learning from the Middle East
Last month I attended the QS Higher Ed Summit: Middle East 2025.
I wasn’t sure what to expect as it was my first conference in the region.
I came away inspired by the discussions that university leaders in the Middle East are having and the innovation they are introducing to improve the futures of their students and communities.
Australia, and Australian higher education, is facing significant challenges and it would be easy when thinking about “the Middle East” to be thinking only of the resources available to wealthy countries in the Gulf region and think “well with all their resources, they can afford to be innovative and focussed on the future”.
To have that view would be to do a great disservice to the leaders of universities in countries like Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, dealing with incredible challenges that Australian institutions would find hard to imagine. Hearing these leaders speak about how (even with the enormous pressures they are dealing with) they are changing curriculum, innovating, and preparing their students for the future was deeply inspirational.
The conversations being had at the Summit by university leaders from across the Middle East was of a noticeably different tone and nature to that at this year’s Universities Australia conference (which I have previously written about).
It would be wonderful to hear more at Australian higher education conferences about the innovation happening in our universities, to learn more about their focus on student wellbeing and success, and their views on the conference theme of Society 5.0.
I’ve summarised some of my key takeaways from the Summit here.
