Higher Education Horizons 2026 - The Human Edge

About Higher Education Horizons 2026

AI is no longer on the horizon – it's in the room. It's in our assessments, our feedback, our learning systems, and increasingly our classrooms. The question for higher education is no longer whether to engage with intelligent technology, but what we choose to protect, prioritise, and design for in response.​

Higher Education Horizons 2026 brings together educators, researchers, learning designers, and institutional leaders from across the Asia-Pacific to explore The Human Edge – what humans bring to learning that matters most, and how we build education systems that amplify it.​

Across three interconnected themes – Agency, Authenticity, and Architecture – this symposium surfaces emerging research, practical solutions, and provocative ideas at the intersection of pedagogy, technology, and institutional design. From assessment integrity to learning analytics, from Universal Design for Learning to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, HE Horizons 2026 is a space for the work that's already happening and the conversations that need to.​

Agency, authenticity, and architecture do not reside in any system, but in the human capacity to make and take responsibility for deliberate human choices consciously aimed at making better learning possible.

This is not a conference about AI. It's a conference about people – and the education systems we're building around them.​

Call for extended abstracts

Themes and topics​

We invite submissions aligned with (but not limited to):

Agency

  • Learner autonomy and self-directed learning​
  • Educator decision-making and professional autonomy​
  • Student voice and co-design​
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Authenticity

  • Assessment design and integrity in the age of GenAI​
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning​
  • Educator identity and professional learning in the age of AI​
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Architecture

  • Learning design and course design​
  • Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning​
  • Learning analytics and data-informed practice

Important dates

Extended abstracts submission deadline 10 July 2026​
Notification of outcomes 20 July 2026​
Public registration open 30 July 2026​
Presenter registration deadline 15 August 2026​
Event date 25 September 2026​

Contact us

For enquiries, please contact: learningfutures@rmit.edu.vn