Spotlight on technology at tertiary innovations summit

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today announced that he will host the Innovations in Tertiary Education Delivery Summit 2014 (ITES2014) in Auckland on 5 and 6 June.

The Summit will bring together 200-250 tertiary education sector key decision makers and influencers to discuss the challenges and opportunities of rapid technological development and global innovations in further and higher education delivery. Attendees will include representatives from the leadership and governance of tertiary education institutions, business, student leaders, senior academics and government agencies.

“The key role for the Summit is to generate New Zealand stakeholder views on international changes in tertiary education, to make sure our system continues to deliver skills and qualifications that meet industry needs, strengthens our international linkages, and strengthens our tertiary institutions,” Mr Joyce says.

The Summit features a high calibre line-up of international speakers, including Salman Khan of the Khan Academy in the USA, Christian Long of collaborative design agency Be Playful in the USA, and Jim Barber independent consultant and former Vice-Chancellor from New South Wales, Australia.

"These speakers all have unique and current experience in new innovations like MOOCS, and they will be invaluable in provoking discussion on the impacts of technology on the future shape of tertiary education."

The recently released Tertiary Education Strategy 2014-2019 (TES) that highlights the need for the tertiary sector, along with government and business,  to look to the future at the way tertiary education is offered and being accessed, and the contribution of further and higher education to the New Zealand economy.

“The Tertiary Education Strategy has a five year window, and it notes that rapidly changing technology will have an impact over that period. But some of the shifts we are observing have broad-ranging implications, so now is the right time to have a national conversation about the next 20 years of education delivery,” Mr Joyce says.

Event partners are Technology Partner REANNZ, and Tertiary Sector partners Massey University, The University Of Auckland, New Zealand Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics, Wellington Institute of Technology, and Eastern Institute of Technology.

Further information on the Summit is available at: http://www.minedu.govt.nz/ITEDSummit2014

A discussion document, Technological Developments and Tertiary Education Delivery Models: The arrival of MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses is available at: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/146849