Universities Without Walls Symposium

Higher Education Leaders will consider what opportunities there are to strengthen higher education through the concept of a ‘University Without Walls’ – built around the needs of community, not just campus.

Key topics

• New models of student-centric engagement – adjusting curriculum, delivery and assessment to suit student needs and preferences, not institutional imperatives.
• Is the solo-occupier campus a luxury most unis can’t afford – A re-think of campuses as shared spaces for multiple institutions, reducing operational costs, rather than owned and occupied by a single university.
• Listening and responding to rebuild social licence – demonstrating deep engagement with community and a willingness to change in response.
• Responsible science – can we grow research outputs through low-cost high-value collaborations while also protecting data and national interests? Is borderless growth a viable strategy with these constraints?

Lessons from piloting a new operational model in real time
This is a symposium unlike most others.

We will start with a session featuring the extraordinary stories of two Ukrainian academics, Professor Yana Sychikova and Professor Igor Lyman, whose lives were turned upside down when Russia invaded their home town of Berdyansk in 2022.

Professor Sychikova and Lyman are coming to Australia for this event, providing a rare opportunity to develop insights from their experience first hand. They will tell the story not just of escape and ongoing danger from aerial bombardment, but also the success story of re-establishing their university from temporary quarters behind Ukrainian lines, establishing a University Without Walls which takes education and research to their community in person and also online.

Students at Berdyansk State Pedagogical University include people studying illegally in occupied territories, soldiers on the front line, and refugees from the Russian invasion scattered to safe havens across the world. With few resources, the university has managed to thrive, with insights for Australian institutions:

• Increasing research output through collaboration and embedding staff and students in research facilities around the world
• Introducing new modes of online, hybrid and in person delivery, including intensive classes in different cities in Ukraine and extended completion windows for assessment to accommodate student needs
• Fast-tracking new curriculum that reflects national and community priorities.

Professor Sychikova and Lyman will discuss insights from studying 40 displaced universities across Australia, creating provocations for a host of Australian education leaders to respond to during the symposium.