Open Polytechnic and Massey University to co-host 30th ICDE World Conference

The conference is expected to bring together hundreds of international leaders and practitioners in the global field of open and distance learning to Aotearoa New Zealand. Open Polytechnic, a long-standing institutional member of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), and host of a previous ICDE Leadership Summit, welcomed Ms Torunn Gjelsvik, Secretary General of the ICDE, and Massey University’s Provost, Professor Giselle Byrnes, to their Lower Hutt based campus earlier this week.

With the ICDE’s permanent Secretariat based in Oslo, Norway, Ms Gjelsvik’s visit was an opportunity to engage with conference co-hosts, dignitaries from across the higher education sector, and to meet with the conference organising committee in person.

Open Polytechnic Executive Director Alan Cadwallader says, “We welcomed the opportunity to have Ms Gjelsvik and Professor Byrnes visit Open Polytechnic. They showed particular interest in how we have experienced our programme of transformational change over the past decade and how that has translated into the experience that our ākonga have today. It has been a pleasure to have had them visit with us”

Open Polytechnic Executive Director of Learning Design and Development, and current ICDE president Dr Mark Nichols, says it was wonderful to have Ms Gjelsvik on campus to discuss the global movement of open education across key stakeholders from the higher education sector.

“Many of the universities represented have hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, millions of ākonga (learners) studying through them. Open Polytechnic is a world-class open and distance learning organisation, so we see these delegates as our international peers,” Dr Nichols says.

Professor Byrnes, who leads the education and research portfolios at Massey University, says “Massey highly values our membership of the ICDE and the opportunity to engage with an international network of education providers who share our vision for transforming lives and communities through open and accessible education. We are delighted to partner with the Open Polytechnic to bring the World Conference to Wellington in November 2025”.

The theme for the 2025 ICDE World Conference is Ako: Exchanging ideas for inclusive, scalable and sustainable education, and will focus on exploring four areas: accessibility and resilience, context and quality, indigeneity, and innovation and openness.

Ms Gjelsvik says the conference theme resonates well with their global community: “The reciprocal aspect of Ako is exactly what we hope will transcend the ICDE World Conference in Wellington next year. Indigeneity has relevance for learning and teaching across borders and continents and is closely linked to knowledge equity and epistemic justice. Aotearoa New Zealand has a lot to contribute with in this regard.”

As part of Ms Gjelsvik’s visit to Wellington, the conference organising team will also meet with representatives from across the sector including Te Pūkenga, the Tertiary Education Commission, Ministry of Education, NZQA, Education NZ, Ako Aotearoa, Teaching Council of NZ, Te Kura Pounamu, and Victoria University of Wellington and the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills, Hon Penny Simmonds.

Find out more about the ICDE World Conference here.