Web site is http://www.futureofhighereducation.com.au/

1. The Future of
Higher Education & Skills Training
‘MOOCs & Digitisation’
Onsite Guide
Agenda & Speaker Profiles
This conference is the next in a series of thought
leading discussions presented by Integrating
Australia with Asia initiative.
Integrating Australia with Asia is an initiative of GLOBAL
MINDSET and Virtual & Global Services hub. It is a hub of
academics, consulting and industry from Australia, India,
and other Asian countries. It aims to strengthen Australia’s
relationship with Asian economies and to position Australia
strategically in the Asian services marketplace.
Platinum Sponsor
Wednesday 10th April,
Four Points by Sheraton, Sydney
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

2. Agenda
08.30 - 09.00 Registration
09.00 - 09.10 Introduction & Welcome Address
09.10 - 10.00 Keynote Address (Virtual)
Prof. Anant Agrawal, President, eDX (online Joint Venture between Harvard & MIT)
10.00 - 10.20 Tea Break
10.20 - 12.00 Interactive Panel AND Q&A
Session moderator: Pradeep Khanna, Executive Director, Integrating Australia with Asia -
Globalisaion, Digitisation and Services Intensification
Prof. Arun Sharma, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Queensland University of Technology
Andrew Thomson, Executive Director AsiaPac, Cisco
Prof. Uday Desai, Director Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Technology
Prof. Pip Pattison, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) , University of Melbourne
Prof. Iain Martin, Vice President and Deputy Vice Chancellor(Academic) , University of NSW
12.00 - 12.45 Lunch
12.45 - 14.30
Higher Education Skills Training Technology
Session moderator: Session moderator: Session moderator:
Tim Dodd, Education Editor, Pradeep Khanna, Executive Brad Howarth, Commentator
Australian Financial Review Director, Integrating Australia and Author on Digital
• Andrew Norton, Higher with Asia - Globalisaion, Transformation
Education Program Digitisation and Services • Dr Nick Tate, President,
Director , Grattan Institute Intensification Australian Computer
• Peter Rohan, Partner, • Shantanu Prakash, Society (ACS)
Ernst & Young Chairman and Managing • Suan Yeo, Head of
• Prof. Eric Y.H. Tsui, Associate Director , Educomp, India Education (APAC), Google
Director, KMIRC, The Hong • Christopher Campbell, • Prof. Simon Kaplan,
Kong Polytechnic University Group MD, Academies Director, Skills and Industry
• Dr Loretta O’Donnell, Australasia Transformation, NICTA
Associate Dean, Education, • Mark J Laurie, Partner, • Raju Varanasi, Chief
Australian School of PricewaterhouseCoopers Operating Officer,
Business, UNSW & member Australia Education Services
of MOOC panel • Peter Acheson, CEO, Australia
• Prof. John Simons, Peoplebank Australia Ltd • Colin Griffith, Director
Executive Dean, • Dilip Chenoy, CEO and Australian Centre for
Macquarie University Managing Director, Broadband Innovation
National Skill Development
Corporation - India
14.30 - 15.00 Afternoon Tea Break
15.00 - 17.00
Workshop: Workshop: Workshop:
Beyond MOOCs Passage to India Immersive Technology
• Dr Dror Ben-Naim, Founder • Jonathan Marshall, CEO, • Christian Richter, Research
and CEO, Smart Sparrow Bondi Labs Stream Leader, CSIRO
• A/Prof Gangadhara Prusty, • Aditya Bhatnagar, Director, • Prof Farzad Safaei, Smart
School of Mechanical and Drona Edutronics Services CRC/University of
Manufacturing Engineering, Wollongong
UNSW
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

3. Welcome
I am delighted to welcome you to the next conference in the series presented by Integrating Australia with Asia initiative*.
Today’s (10th April 2013) international conference looks at the Future of Higher Education & Skills Training in the Australasian
Region - Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) & Digitisation.
There are clear headwinds for the higher education and skills training industry, in Australia as well as globally. Digital
disruption & MOOCs are certainly one of them. So, is a tsumani coming our way or is it just another passing wave ?
Education services are Australia’s third largest exports, after iron ore & coal – estimated at $15 billion last year. The Asian
Century Whitepaper lists India as one of our six focus countries. India is also an important market for our education exports,
and therefore India is a focus country at this conference.
So, fasten your seat belt, sit tight and enjoy yourself, listening to and getting your questions answered on higher education,
vocational education & training and corporate training.
* Integrating Australia with Asia is an initiative of GLOBAL MINDSET and Virtual & Global Services hub. It is a hub of academics,
consulting and industry from Australia, India, and other Asian countries. It aims to strengthen Australia’s relationship with Asian
economies and to position Australia strategically in the Asian services marketplace.
Pradeep Khanna
Title: Executive Director
Company: Integrating Australia with Asia - Globalisaion, Digitisation and Services Intensification
Pradeep is developing Virtual & Global Services Hub of academia, consulting & industry from
Australia, India & other Asian countries. He is Managing Director of GLOBAL MINDSET, thought
leading research and consulting company heavily involved in all aspects of virtual & global services,
& global sourcing. With over 25 years of executive & management experience across number of
industries, Pradeep has been Leader for IBM GBS Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) leveraging India, China, Philippines,
Vietnam, Egypt, Romania, Brazil & Argentina for A/NZ . He has worked on assignments involving IBM, Australian Trade
Commission, Optus, Westpac, Qantas, ING, Crompton Greaves etc
He is also Chairperson, Branding & Treasurer of IITian Association of Australia (IITAA), Chairman of Royal Star, Global Executive
Member at IIT Delhi AA, & Director (Consulting) at Mindfields Consulting. He is mentor at UNSW, AIBC & other places. Pradeep
did his MBA from AGSM (UNSW), M.Sc, Computer Science from UTS, & B Tech from IIT Delhi.
Speakers Please note: Speakers are in order of when they appear on the agenda
Prof. Anant Agrawal
Title: President Company: eDX (online Joint Venture between Harvard & MIT)
Anant Agarwal is the President of edX, an online learning venture of Harvard and MIT. Agarwal taught the
first course of edX on circuits and electronics from MIT, which drew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He
has served as the director of CSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a
professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. He is also a founder of Tilera Corporation
which created the Tile multicore processor. He led the development of Raw, an early tiled multicore
processor, Sparcle, an early multi-threaded microprocessor, and Alewife, a scalable multiprocessor.
Prof. Arun Sharma
Title: Deputy Vice Chancellor Company: Queensland University of Technology
Arun Sharma is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Commercialisation) at QUT. He was a co-
founder of NICTA. He has served as a member of the ARC Advisory Council, Queensland Premier’s Smart
State Council and Business Roundtable, and currently chairs the Queensland India Council. He has also
served as the National Chair of the Australia India Business Council.
Andrew Thomson
Title: Executive Director AsiaPac Company: Cisco
As Director of Public Sector Strategy for Cisco, Andrew works with government agencies to improve
efficiency and citizen engagement. His deep understanding of education and government results from his
experience a senior provincial-government minister in Canada where he served as Saskatchewan’s minister
of finance, education, public safety, and energy.
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

4. Prof. Uday Desai
Title: Director Indian Institute of Technology Company: Indian Institute of Technology
Uday B. Desai received the B. Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1974, the
M.S. degree from the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1976, and the Ph.D. degree from The Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., in 1979, all in Electrical Engineering. Since June 2009 he is the Director of IIT
Hyderabad.
Prof. Pip Pattison
Title: Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) Company: University of Melbourne
Professor Pip Pattison is currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Melbourne.
Her research involves the development and application of mathematical and statistical models for social
networks and network-based social processes. Pip was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social
Sciences in Australia in 1995.
Prof. Iain Martin
Title: Vice President and Deputy Vice Chancellor(Academic) Company: University of New South Wales
Professor Iain Martin is Vice President and DVC (Academic) at the University of New South Wales. Having trained
as a medical doctor at the University of Leeds, UK, we worked for the University of Leeds for 13 years before
moving to the University of Auckland as Professor of Surgery in 2000. In 2005 he was appointed as Dean of the
Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences a post he held until mid 2011 when he was appointed as Deputy Vice
Chancellor(Strategic Engagement) at the University. In October 2012 he took up his current role at UNSW.
Tim Dodd
Title: Education Editor Company: Australian Financial Review - Event Breakout Session Moderator
Tim Dodd leads the education coverage in the Financial Review, editing the weekly Monday education
section and co-ordinating the daily coverage of education issues. He writes a weekly column, Education
Observed, published on Mondays. He has over 20 experience as a journalist covering public policy, economic
and political issues.
Andrew Norton
Title: Higher Education Program Director Company: Grattan Institute
Andrew Norton is the Higher Education Program Director at the Grattan Institute. His most recent reports are
Mapping Australian higher education, 2013 and Graduate Winners: Assessing the public and private benefits
of higher education. He has a regular higher education column for The Age newspaper, and is a frequent
media commentator on higher education issues.
Peter Rohan
Title: Partner Company: Ernst & Young
Peter is a Senior Memberof Ernst & Young’s Education Industry Group. He has extensive experience both
locally and internationally. Peter’s key expertise is in public policy reform, operational strategy & improvement
and organisational change. He has over 25 years experience in leading and managing important projects
across a variety of organisations and a diverse range of stakeholder groups.
Prof. Eric Y.H. Tsui
Title: Associate Director, KMIRC Company: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Eric was appointed Professor of Knowledge Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University under the
President’s Distinguished Professionals Scheme in September 2002, he joined as a full time staff in March 2005.
Since then, he has designed and delivered numerous public and custom-designed knowledge management
and technologies workshops. He has consulted for many government departments and private organisations
in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei. Eric is Vice President of the Hong Kong Knowledge
Management Society, an honorary advisor on KM to the Hong Kong Police College, and a member on IT Technical Advisory Sub-
Committee in the Hospital Authority. He has held various positions at various organisations these include but are not limited to; CSC,
AMP and Maybank. He was also a gratis visitor to Microsoft Research in February, 2000.
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

5. Dr Loretta O’Donnell
Title: Associate Dean, Education, Australian School of Business Company: UNSW & member of MOOC panel
Dr Loretta O’Donnell is Associate Dean, Education at the Australian School of Business, University of New South
Wales. Loretta’s research interests are in human capital analysis issues within financial markets, and how to
improve dialogue between Boards and markets on human capital and intangible value creation.
Prof. John Simons
Title: Executive Dean Company: Macquarie University
Professor John Simons is Executive Dean of Arts at Macquarie University. He previously worked at the universities
of Wales, Exeter, Winchester, Edge Hill and Lincoln in the UK and has held several visiting Professorships in the
USA. In the 1990s he worked extensively in eastern Europe on various projects to build universities after the fall
of communism. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Higher Education Academy, the Zoological
Society of London and the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.
Shantanu Prakash
Title: Chairman and Managing Director Company: Educomp, India
Shantanu Prakash founded Educomp Solutions Limited in 1994, a few years after acquiring an MBA degree
from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His vision has been to transform the teaching-learning
process through the use of technology and best practices. The company employs over 16000 people across
27 offices worldwide including India, USA Canada, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. Educomp is the
leader in education content, professional development, online learning and the first company to set up high
quality schools across the country Educomp works with over 32,000 schools and 20 million students across the globe and has joint
ventures with Pearson PLC and Raffles Education Corporation for vocational and higher education respectively.
Christopher Campbell
Title: Group MD Company: Academies Australasia
Group Managing Director, Academies Australasia (‘AKG’), since 1996. AKG’s 10 separately licensed colleges
in Australia and Singapore have taught tens of thousands of students from 116 countries. Director, Asia Society
Australia and Member, Council on Australia Latin America Relations Education Action Group. AKG has been
operating for more than 100 years and listed on ASX for 35 years.
Mark J Laurie
Title: Partner Company: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Mark is a Senior Partner at PwC, the Client Lead Partner on a number of multi-national clients and is the PwC
Australia - India Practice Leader. He also leads both a Partner and a Client Executive Development program
and was a Member of PwC Australia’s Leadership Council and the Industry Leader’s Committee. Mark has
a background in both corporate and advisory roles, across a broad range of industries and geographies,
including Australia, China, South East Asia, India and New Zealand. His has had many assignments across
financial and management reporting, mergers and acquisitions, market entry strategies, the development of operating models,
capital raisings, corporate restructures, risk management and litigation support. Mark was a Lieutenant in the Australian Army Reserve
(Infantry) and awarded the Australian Defence Medal.
Peter Acheson
Title: CEO Company: Peoplebank Australia Ltd
Peoplebank is Australia’s largest IT&T recruitment company. Founded in 1990, we specialise in the permanent
and contract placement of IT&T professionals across all vertical markets. We have a national network of offices
in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney; with 3,000 contractors on-site and place 6,000
candidates every year. Our vision is to be the best recruitment company in Asia Pacific, the No. 1 Choice for
our Employees, Clients and Candidates. Peoplebank... Passionate about People.
Dilip Chenoy
Title: MD & CEO Company: National Skill Development Corporation
Dilip is currently Managing Director & CEO of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The NSDC
is a Public Private Partnership whose objective is to skill 150 million people in India by 2022 by fostering
private sector investment and initiatives in training and skill development in 20 high growth sectors and the
unorganized segment.
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

6. Brad Howarth
Title: Commentator and Author on Digital Transformation
Brad has built his career around investigating the impact technology has on business, society and
individuals. As a professional journalist, author and speaker, Brad has spent the last two decades analysing
the challenges and opportunities that arise from new technologies, and has become much sought after as
a catalyst for discussions around the evolution of industry and business models. Brad co-authored A Faster
Future (February 2011). In the mid to late 1990s Brad reported on the rapid growth of Australia’s IT industry as
it rode the dotcom bubble. In 1999, he joined the editorial team at BRW as Information Technology Editor and then into the role of
Marketing Editor.
Dr Nick Tate
Title: President Company: Australian Computer Society (ACS)
Dr Nick Tate is President of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and Director of the Australian Government’s
Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) project which is based at the University of Queensland (UQ).
This initiative aims to transform the storage of research data throughout Australian Universities and Research
Institutions. He was Associate Director of the Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS) which
developed and deployed cloud computing and cloud storage services for researchers across Australia. He
has been an Adjunct Professor in IT and Electrical Engineering at UQ since 2008. He has over 38 years IT experience with 16 years at
CIO level in a University and two banks.
Suan Yeo
Title: Head of Education (APAC) Company: Google
Suan heads up Google’s Enterprise Education efforts in Asia-Pacific. He is responsible for promoting the
adoption of Google technology at the institution level for schools and universities. Suan is passionate about
Educational Technology, and is constantly advocating for collaborative learning, open access and innovative
experimentation. He is a lifelong learner, and firmly believes that no child should be left behind in education.
Prof. Simon Kaplan
Title: Director, Skills and Industry Transformation Company: NICTA
Simon Kaplan is NICTA Director, Skills and Industry Transformation. Prior to working at NICTA, Simon was Professor of
Computer Science and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Queensland University of
Technology. And before that he was Head of the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at
the University of Queensland, He holds B.Sc (Hons) (first class) and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science, both from
the University of Cape Town. He has over 30 years of industry and research experience in information technology.
Raju Varanasi
Title: Chief Operating Officer Company: Education Services Australia
Raju Varanasi is the Chief Operating Officer of the NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre (NSW
CLIC) at the NSW Dept. of Education and Communities. The Centre develops high quality teaching and
learning resources in all areas of school curriculum, professional learning courses, tools, portals and support
materials to support delivery in classrooms. His key responsibilities include the promotion of a culture of
innovation through the development and implementation of major teaching and learning initiatives using ICT.
Raju was a speaker at the National Broadband Network Summit at UNSW in 2009 and a panelist for OpenGov forum in 2012. He is
member of the national education groups for Digital Architecture and E-learning, managed by the federal education department
(DEEWR). He is an Australian Fulbright Scholar and was a Director in TAFE NSW for several years prior to joining the Centre for Learning
Innovation. He has an excellent understanding of and broad experience in the development and delivery of digitally based services
for both school and vocational education within NSW and Australia.
Colin Griffith
Title: Director Company: Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation
Colin Griffith is the Director of the Australian Centre for Broadband Innovation (ACBI), a collaborative research
initiative led by CSIRO in partnership with NICTA, Colin has been a leading exponent of innovative internet and
electronic services over the last twenty years working in a variety of media, internet, consulting and government
positions. He established the popular and awarding winning ABC Online and managing the ABC’s new media
service during the 1990s. He was also a senior executive with the NSW Government Chief Information Office,
responsible for promoting broadband and new forms of service delivery for health, education and other government services. Key
achievements included the construction of state-wide fibre optic network for major hospitals, schools and other government facilities
and the development of open government policies and initiatives to improve access to public sector data.
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

7. Dr Dror Ben-Naim
Title: Founder and CEO Company: Smart Sparrow
Dr Dror Ben-Naim is the founder and CEO of Smart Sparrow, an ed-tech start-up pioneering adaptive and
personalized learning technology. Prior to founding Smart Sparrow, Ben-Naim led a research group in the
field of Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Educational Data Mining at UNSW, resulting in the development of the
Adaptive eLearning Platform. The tools and content that the group developed were successfully adopted by
UNSW and other top Australian universities.
In 2011, as demand for Adaptive eLearning grew beyond the capacity of the research team, Ben-Naim and his fellow researchers
founded Smart Sparrow with a mission to take Adaptive Learning to the next level and with backing from venture capital investors.
Smart Sparrow has since grown and is now involved in several multi-university projects (involving UMelb, UTas, UTS, ACU, Monash, UWS,
JCU and more), aiming to make the world a smarter place.
Dr. Ben-Naim holds a B.Sc. in Physics and Computer Science and a PhD in A.I. and Education from UNSW.
A/Prof Gangadhara Prusty
Title: A/Prof, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Company: UNSW
Gangadhara Prusty is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at
UNSW and have received multiple teaching excellence awards, including Australian Awards for Teaching and
Australian Council of Engineering Deans Award for Engineering Education Excellence in 2012. He pioneered
the Adaptive eLearning technologies with traditional teaching in novel ways to help net-gen students in
large engineering classes. His teaching development has been taken up by students and academics at the
national and international universities.
Jonathan Marshall
Title: CEO Company: Bondi Labs
Jonathan Marshall founded Bondi Labs in 2012 to develop serious games for the plant biosecurity space
in collaboration with the CSIRO, QUT, SBIT and the Crawford Fund. The objective is to develop effective
and scalable skills development solutions that address global food security challenges in the 21st Century.
Jonathan also runs Plataris an OEM eLearning content developer for professionals in the early childhood
education sector. Jonathan has a Bachelor in Economics (Hons) and an MBA and was previously a strategy
leader for GE in the US, UK, Europe and Australia.
Aditya Bhatnagar
Title: Director Company: Drona Edutronics
Aditya Ranjan Bhatnagar is a keen observer of educational trends around the world and their application
to Engineering Education. Training and skilling of technical manpower for core engineering Industry. Content
development and e learning and Vocational Training are key areas. Designing Labs and Experiments for
hands on approach. Worked on skilling proposals with the National Skills Development Council and the
Electronics Skills Sector Council.
Christian Richter
Title: Research Stream Leader Company: CSIRO
Since joining the CSIRO in 2009, Christian led a series of multidisciplinary research projects and initiatives
ranging from sensor network technology to information management. He currently leads a series of projects
within the Digital Productivity and Services Flagship, a major initiative to deliver more efficient and innovative
services for Australia.
Prof. Farzad Safaei
Title: Director, ICT Research Institute Company: Smart Services CRC/University of Wollongong
Farzad Safaei graduated from the University of Western Australia with the degree of Bachelor of Engineering
(Electronics) and obtained his PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from Monash University, Australia.
Currently, he is the Professor of Telecommunications Engineering and Managing Director of ICT Research
Institute at the University of Wollongong. Before joining the University of Wollongong, he was the Manager of
Internetworking Architecture and Services Section in Telstra Research Laboratories.
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au

8. The Future of
Higher Education & Skills Training
‘MOOCs & Digitisation’
Global Mindset is a thought leading consulting company focused on
increasing services trade between Australia, India and other Asian countries.
• provides strategic, market entry and project management services
• promotes joint academic, research, consulting and corporate training between
Australian and Asian entities
• presents thought leading panel discussions through its initiative Integrating Australia
with Asia
For any queries, please contact Pradeep Khanna, CEO & Managing Director by
Email: mindsetglobal@gmail.com
Phone: +61 401144553
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mindglobal
Linkedin: http://au.linkedin.com/pub/pradeep-khanna/3/574/b44
Conference Sponsors, Exhibitors and Supporters
We would like to thank the following organisations for supporting The Future of
Higher Education & Skills Training.
Platinum Sponsor Exhibitor
Conference Sponsors
Conference Supporters
www.futureofhighereducation.com.au