Episode 0: Introducing Higher Hopes with Ebe Ganon

Welcome to Higher Hopes, the podcast raising the bar for Australian universities. In this trailer episode, host Ebe Ganon introduces a new kind of conversation about systemic change in higher education - one that genuinely centres student voices, lived experience, and solutions to move our sector forward.

Tired of surface-level solutions and feel-good initiatives that don't actually shift the dial? Same. This podcast brings together students, advocates, academics, and progressive leaders for bold conversations about what's possible when universities actually live up to their potential.

From student leadership and governance reform to universal design for learning and genuine First Nations allyship, we're exploring how universities can serve staff and students from traditionally underserved backgrounds - and charting the path to get there.

No institutional BS allowed. We're reimagining higher education or we're not talking at all.

Transcript

Ebe Ganon: 0:10

Welcome to Higher Hopes, the podcast raising the bar for Australian universities. I'm Ebe Ganon and I'm here for the bold conversations about what's possible when higher education lives up to its potential as a place for everyone to learn, connect, and thrive. In my work in the tertiary sector over the last few years, as an undergraduate, postgraduate staff member, and independent advocate, I've had some amazing conversations with members of the community who want to see our sector doing better. Every week I see incredible research, amazing student activism and advocacy, pockets of transformation and brave leadership, and individuals with a vision for what universities could be if they really served all of us. But I've noticed that these discussions are happening at the grassroots level, between students and among early and mid-career staff. On the other hand, mainstream conversations among senior leaders and university management still seem stuck 10 years behind and often exclude those of us most underserved by our institutions. These conversations are happening locally. They're happening quietly on the sides of conferences, frenetically in the chat box during a webinar or a meeting that's striking a chord, in moments of frustration in the corridor, as brief asides during a chat about something else. I wanted to bring these conversations to a broader audience and work together with others in the sector who know how to move us forward to amplify these visions for change. Higher Hopes brings together students, advocates, academics, and progressive leaders for bold conversations about what's possible in Australian higher education. We'll explore how universities can genuinely serve staff and students from traditionally underserved backgrounds, and move us beyond surface level incrementalism to chart the path towards real systemic change. From the start this project is grounded in three important principles. First, this platform will genuinely centre student voices and leadership. None of this "tag a student panel on at the end of a conference to make everyone feel good" stuff, but genuinely valuing student contributions as important perspectives in improving our sector. Second, prioritising lived experience, especially platforming the voices of First Nations people and people with disability. In the disability community, we often use the phrase "nothing about us, without us" to describe the importance of being involved in decisions which affect us. On this platform it's nothing without us, period. Finally, I'll be facilitating challenging, informed and solutions-focused conversations about the issues and cultures in the higher education system. We don't shy away from hard topics and we hold our institutions accountable. In our upcoming episodes, you'll hear conversations that matter. I have an incredible list of students, researchers, professional staff, and sector leaders lined up to cover a range of topics. We're gonna talk about student leadership, university governance, student support systems that work, universal design for learning, practising genuine First Nations allyship, and the importance of building institutional cultures which genuinely centre inclusion and access. For those I haven't met yet, I'm a community engagement and inclusion practitioner who spent the last few years navigating universities as both an insider and an outsider. I recently completed my Masters in Disability and Inclusion, where my thesis explored how disabled students experience collective advocacy and peer connection. I'm a current VET student undertaking my Cert IV in training and assessment, and I'll be shortly walking back into the flames of our sector to start a PhD in disability employment. I am also a non-executive director of a national disability representative organisation, I sit on various government advisory groups, and I work in research looking at how to improve disability support provision in universities. I've been a senior government adviser, a frontline support coordinator, and everything in between. But fundamentally, I'm a neurodivergent person with disability who spent years watching universities say all the right things about inclusion while continuing to fail the very students and staff they claim to support. I've seen the gap between policy and practice, and frankly, I'm tired of it. I bring lived experience as someone who's needed support, professional expertise as someone who's designed it, and zero patience for institutional BS as someone who knows we can do better. If you are a student who's frustrated with your university but believes it could be better, this is for you. If you're a staff member working in disability services, equity, you're a teaching staff member, or you work in student support and you know your current systems aren't good enough, this is for you. If you're an academic, a researcher, or a professional who thinks big about what higher education could become when it genuinely includes everyone, this is for you. And if you're a senior leader, ready to hear and take action, led by the voices of those who understand how we can realise real inclusion beyond motherhood statements, beyond platitudes, this is for you too. I'm excited to share this vision for higher hopes and what you can expect from this new platform for big conversations about systemic change. The podcast launches officially next month with our first full episode, and this is just the beginning of a conversation that is long overdue. If you believe Australian universities can do better, I wanna hear from you. Head to higherhopespod.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram, and most importantly, support independent podcasting that's not afraid to ask hard questions. Podcasting isn't free. If you're keen to back this project, go to higherhopespod.com and consider pledging your financial support on Patreon. This podcast will always be independent and will never be funded by a university, proudly so. For only $5 a month, you can help cover the costs of hosting and distributing these important conversations and have input into the topics we prioritise and the questions I pose to our guests. You can also go to higherhopespod.com and express your interest as a future guest on the pod if you wanna shape the conversations we have on this platform. Until next time, keep dreaming bigger, keep building better, and stay hopeful. The Higher Hopes Podcast is produced on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples. I pay my respects to elders past and present, as well as any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people listening today. Sovereignty was never ceded, and this acknowledgement extends to wherever you're listening from. I encourage you to learn about the traditional custodians of your own lands. It's our job to support First Nations perspectives and knowledge in the higher education sector as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the original learners, teachers and researchers on this land.