Thirty-eight universities from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand were represented at the event with two full days of programming at the 2025 DASSH annual Conference themed Global Contexts: Leading Education in an Age of Global Disruption.

We would like to thank Professor Simon Adams, CEO and President of the Center for Victims of Torture for speaking about rising threat of authoritarianism around the world at the DASSH Conference in Sydney.

The center is an international organisation that treats survivors and advocates for an end to torture worldwide with offices in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda, United States and additional project sites in countries around the world. Simon reflected on decades of experience fighting for human rights around the world and working in humanitarian aid and called on all of us to be upstanders.

TEQSA Commissioner Professor Kerri-Lee Krause PhD, GAICD, PFHEA and Times Higher Education Asia-Pacific Editor John Ross brought more than 50 combined years of higher education experience to their conversation with Nick Bisley at the DASSH conference in Sydney.

Professor Krause said the top issues she sees our members facing are:

• University governance
• Social license and eroding trust
• AI and assessment integrity
• Student and staff wellbeing
• Financial stability
• Social cohesion, with the purpose of universities under question
• Regulatory complexity
• Navigating change a
• Social license and eroding trust
• AI and assessment integrity
• Student and staff wellbeing
• Financial stability
• Social cohesion, with the purpose of universities under question
• Regulatory complexity
• Navigating change and transformation while also managing self-care

John Ross said universities need to be more transparent and less secretive, but reflected that the complexities of university funding are not always present in broader debate.

Thanks to both speakers and Chair Immediate Past President Nick Bisley for a fascinating discussion.