At the recent ICDE 2025 World Conference Education Policy Forum in New Zealand, Aotearoa, FLANZ joined forces with ACODE and ODLAA to represent Oceania’s voice on the future of Open, Distance, and Flexible Learning (ODFL). 

Our shared mission: enabling Ako for all.

Through the ICDE Oceania Global Advocacy Campaign, with support from the University of the South Pacific, we surveyed sector leaders on their perceived progress toward inclusivity, scalability, and sustainability goals in tertiary education.

Key insights:

While equity-focused policies in Aotearoa and Australia show promise—such as Māori and Pasifika completion initiatives and the Australian Universities Accord—significant challenges remain, including:

• Qualification recognition across jurisdictions remains a major barrier, despite regional commitments.
• Local successes struggle to scale due to cost, risk, and lack of strategic frameworks.
• Funding cuts in teacher training and competitive research environments hinder innovation.
• The rise of AI-equipped learning environments is fuelling conservative definitions of “quality,” favouring face-to-face delivery—at odds with equity and access goals.

Leveraging these insights, we identified three government priorities we considered most likely to advance progress toward inclusivity, scalability, and sustainability goals:

• Recognition of ODFL equivalence to face-to-face learning.
• Investment in professional development to build resilience and capability.
• Strategic innovation funding, especially for digital infrastructure and AI adaptation.

The conversation reinforced a clear message: policy matters. Well-consulted, stable policy and strategic funding are critical enablers of inclusive, scalable, and sustainable education for all learners. This message will contribute to the voice of the Tākina Accord, an ICDE World Conference initiative that will propose policy solutions to decision makers desiring to make education more inclusive, scalable, and sustainable. The Accord will reflect the whakaaro (thoughts/ideas) of the conference delegates, including many from Aotearoa, New Zealand.