Webinar: Re-engineering Global Higher Ed following COVID-19 by Learnit World

About This Webinar

In our second virtual Learnit session, we’re in conversation with experts who are leading through transformational times.

A moderated panel discussion by Jenny Anderson, Senior Reporter, Quartz, featuring panellists:
- Ed Byrne, President & Principal, King's College London (London, UK)
- José Escamilla de los Santos, Director of Innovation, Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico)
- Lauren Herckis, Simon Initiative Special Faculty, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA)
- Michael Sorrell, President, Paul Quinn College (Dallas, USA)

The problems of higher education are well known; affordability, inequities, perceived irrelevance, unsustainability.

Despite its slow-moving reputation, the higher education sector shifted to an almost completely remote model in the space of a few short weeks, and in some cases, days. But there’s significantly more change to come.

As colleges and universities prepare for the autumn term and beyond, we’re in conversation with leaders across the globe to discuss the decisions they are making right now and the opportunities for change tomorrow.

Join us for a 45 minute moderated panel discussion, with the opportunity for audience questions in the final 15 minutes.

Jenny Anderson

Senior Reporter, Quartz

Jenny Anderson is a senior reporter for Quartz in London. She covers how parents, teachers, policymakers, scientists and even entrepreneurs around the world are using science and technology to inform how we teach, learn and parent in the age of artificial intelligence. Prior to Quartz, Jenny spent over a decade at the The New York Times reporting on Wall Street before covering schools and learning. She is a frequent speaker, moderating or speaking on panels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Brookings Institution, MIT Solve, and for Teach for All, among others.

Michael Sorrell

President, Paul Quinn College

Michael J. Sorrell is the longest-serving President in the 147-year history of Paul Quinn College. During his 12 years of leadership, Paul Quinn has become a national movement for its efforts to remake all of higher education to become more responsive to student and societal needs.

Included among Paul Quinn’s numerous accomplishments during President Sorrell’s tenure are the following: winning the HBCU of the Year, the HBCU Student Government Association of the Year, and the HBCU Business Program of the Year awards; achieving recognition as a member of the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll; creating the New Urban College Model; demolishing 15 abandoned campus buildings; partnering with PepsiCo to transform the football field into the WE over Me Farm; achieving full-accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS); creating the College’s first faculty-led study abroad program; and rewriting all institutional fundraising records.

Lauren Herckis

Simon Initiative Special Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University

Lauren Herckis is an anthropologist Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in faculty culture and the use of technology in higher education. As Simon Initiative Research Faculty, she is affiliated with the Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences and the School of Computer Science's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, as well as the Block Center for Technology and Society and the Simon Initiative. Her research explores the ways that people engage with innovative technologies, how innovation shapes culture, the impact of social networks on technical choices, and the potential of virtual and augmented reality “spaces” to function as meaningful social places.

A Fulbright recipient, Dr. Herckis’ work has also been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the POD Network for Higher Education, and the Hillman Family Foundations. Today, her research informs policymaking, shapes the development of learning technologies, and illuminates aspects of organizational culture and policy that affect teaching in colleges and universities around the world.

José Escamilla de los Santos

Director of Innovation, Tecnológico de Monterrey

José Escamilla de los Santos is the director of TecLabs – Learning Reimagined, a disruptive innovation unit whose objective is finding out how higher education will be in 2030. TecLabs is responsible for articulating the research, innovation, and entrepreneurship processes for Educational Innovation in Tecnologico de Monterrey.

He was the Dean of the Graduate School of Education. He has worked in the use of technologies in educational, artificial intelligence in education and other educational innovation projects. He holds a Computer Science Engineering Degree from Tecnologico de Monterrey, and a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble.

Ed Byrne

President & Principal, King's College London

Ed Byrne is President and Principal of King’s College London. He is an Academic Neurologist whose research contributions are in the fields of mitochondrial disease and neuromuscular disorders. He was Professor of Neurology and Director of the Centre for Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, and then held a number of university leadership positions including Dean of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University, Vice-Provost for Health at UCL and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University.

Ed is Chairman of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and has long-standing interests in improving the contributions universities can make to society. He is the author, with Charles Clarke, of The University Challenge: Changing Universities in a Changing World (Pearson, 2020).