The University Is Dead. Long Live the University.
How Australian Higher Education Can Stop Sleepwalking Into Irrelevance
I read every strategic plan from every Australian university. All 39 of them. What I found was a copy-paste machine — and a sector that hasn't reckoned with what's coming. This report is the reckoning.
The Problem
39 strategies. One finding.
Australian universities are writing identical strategies full of identical buzzwords while the ground shifts beneath them. Arts enrolments are collapsing. AI is rewriting every profession. And not a single strategy mentions the word “taste.”
The numbers that should alarm you:
What's Inside
What this report covers
The Diagnosis
The Job-Ready Graduate scheme has made Australia the only developed nation actively defunding the skills AI cannot replace. The data is damning, the policy is vandalism, and the sector is asleep.
The Evidence
Every Australian university strategy, graded. What Arizona State, Singapore, and Finland are building while Australia writes frameworks. Nine things every strategy is missing — including the word “taste.”
The Vision
Universities sit on 800 years of verified, peer-reviewed knowledge — the exact asset AI companies are spending billions to access. A single research-intensive university could generate $32–125M in new annual revenue. This isn't charity. It's the biggest business opportunity in higher education's history.
The Action Plan
Seven capabilities AI cannot replace, with assessment methods for each. A year-by-year transformation roadmap. Six policy recommendations. Revenue diversification with real numbers, not aspirational projections.
Key Findings
The headline findings
1 of 39
universities earned above a B+ for future-readiness
30 of 39
have no meaningful AI strategy
4×
the fee penalty for studying humanities vs mathematics
$32–125M
new revenue opportunity per research-intensive university
7
capabilities AI cannot replace — and universities barely assess
0
strategies that explicitly defend arts funding
The Seven Capabilities
The seven things AI can't do
While universities test students on information recall — something AI does at superhuman levels — seven capabilities remain stubbornly, irreplaceably human:
Judgement
Choosing with conviction when the data is incomplete
Taste
Knowing the difference between adequate and exceptional
Accountability
Owning outcomes, not just completing tasks
Emotional Intelligence
Reading rooms, building trust, managing conflict
Practical Application
Performing when the brief is ambiguous and the stakes are real
Creative Direction
Envisioning what doesn't exist and guiding others to create it
Ethical Reasoning
Navigating moral complexity without simple answers
None of these appear on a standard university transcript. The report details how to assess each one.
Audience
Who should read this
Vice-Chancellors and university executives who suspect their strategic plan sounds like everyone else's (it does)
Education policymakers still defending a fee structure that defunds what machines can't do
Faculty leaders looking for ammunition to defend arts, humanities, and the human skills
EdTech leaders and AI companies who haven't realised universities are sitting on the exact asset they need
Anyone in higher education who's tired of the word "transformative" appearing in documents that transform nothing
About the Author
Jason La Greca
Jason is the founder of Teachnology. He's spent 20+ years at the intersection of education, technology, and product — including five years leading education products at Microsoft. He currently leads AI transformation at one of Australia's largest universities while building AI-native products through Teachnology Ventures.
He doesn't just advise. He builds.
More about JasonThe institutions that act will thrive. The ones that keep writing buzzword strategies will decline.
Slowly at first, then all at once.
Want to discuss how these findings apply to your institution?
Get in touch