THE World Academic Summit 2023 heads to Sydney

Times Higher Education’s World Academic Summit is heading to Australia, it has been announced.

The University of Sydney is set to host the next World Academic Summit, from 26 to 28 September 2023.

The university was revealed as host of the international gathering of leaders in higher education on 12 October – the final day of the 2022 World Academic Summit at New York University.

The theme for the forthcoming annual summit will be “collaborating for greatness in a multidisciplinary world”.

The 2023 summit will be a forum for discussion about how institutions can best collaborate, both internally across departments and externally with industry, government and civil society, to advance transformative research and its practical implementation.

Participants will examine the role of university leaders and policymakers in diversifying approaches to global education systems.

The event will set the agenda for the future and ensure the higher education sector is best placed to respond to global challenges by expanding on these themes:

• Adopting new methods of teaching and learning
• Increasing cross-sector partnerships
• Integrating multidisciplinary research initiatives
• Promoting gender equity and diversity

Phil Baty, chief knowledge officer at THE, said that after an inspiring return to an in-person gathering for more than 400 university, industry and policy leaders in New York this week, the organisers were “absolutely thrilled to be inviting our international leadership community in 2023 to another of the world’s most iconic and dynamic cities, Sydney, for the flagship World Academic Summit in partnership with the University of Sydney”.

“This will be the first World Academic Summit to be held in Australia since 2015 and the University of Sydney could not be a more perfect partner for some of the vital conversations that will take place at the summit, where it has consistently shown leadership and innovation: how to truly break down academic silos to deliver world-changing research discoveries; how to deliver gender equality and diversity; and how to adopt new methods of teaching and learning,” said Mr Baty.

“Above all, the summit will be about collaboration – collaboration between disciplines, between institutions and across borders to drive real change for a better world. We are delighted to invite the global higher education and research leadership community to come and collaborate with us in Sydney.”

Professor Mark Scott, vice-chancellor and president of The University of Sydney, said he looked forward to welcoming participants and attendees from around the world.

“We’re honoured to host this important international gathering,” he said. “The summit itself is testament to the value of collaboration. It’s a chance to hear about new ideas and innovations from institutions around the world, to create relationships and gain fresh perspective on the way we work.

“In both research and education, exciting things happen when we bring together leaders and experts from different places, with different ways of thinking,” Professor Scott continued.

The summit will feature the announcement of the THE World University Rankings 2024 at a gala dinner, followed by an in-depth masterclass from THE’s data team. This will provide analysis and insight into the key findings, trends and stories from rankings data.

 The THE World University Rankings 2023 were also released yesterday, showing signs of a shifting balance in global research power. The US, for instance, is stagnating, while China has improved.