Navigating the Triple Challenges of Practice, Diversity, and Technological Change

This keynote presents Professor Sir Chris Husbands’ reflections on the changing context of higher education and the strategic choices institutions face in teaching and learning. Drawing on experience of institutional leadership and policy frameworks such as the UK Teaching Excellence Framework and the HEA Student Success Framework, the paper explores three core challenges: responding to increasingly diverse student populations, navigating the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence and digital technologies, and clarifying institutional value propositions. The keynote emphasises the importance of leadership, data-informed practice, digital literacy, assessment redesign, and ethical guardrails in shaping distinctive and high-quality teaching and learning in mass higher education systems.