Meg Knight

Graduation rates are more than a metric. Behind every percentage point is a real person — someone who worked nights and weekends, juggled family commitments, pushed through self-doubt — and crossed a finish line they worked incredibly hard to reach.

I think about that often. It shapes how I approach product strategy, how I prioritise decisions, and what I genuinely consider a win.

The best education technology organisations I’ve worked with share a common trait: they don’t treat student outcomes as a downstream effect of their commercial model. They build around them from the start. That distinction matters more than most people realise. When outcomes become a KPI rather than a purpose, products drift — optimising for enrolments, not for the students who enrolled.

“The right combination of data, technology, and human support can move the needle — even incrementally — in ways that genuinely change people’s lives.”

Working across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, I’ve seen how much context matters. A working mother studying online in rural Queensland faces different friction points than a first-generation college student in Ohio or a career-changer navigating a UK postgraduate programme. The challenge isn’t building one solution — it’s building systems flexible enough to respond to all of them.

That’s where technology earns its place. Not by replacing the human relationships that underpin good education, but by making them more informed, more timely, and more scalable. Learning analytics that surface a student falling behind before they disengage entirely. Virtual assistants that answer questions at 11pm when no-one else can. Adaptive learning pathways that meet students where they are, not where we assumed they’d be.

None of this is simple. The gap between AI-enabled education and genuinely effective education is wider than the hype suggests. Governance matters. Equity matters. Proving outcomes — not just promising them — matters more than ever as institutions face increasing scrutiny and shrinking margins.

But I remain energised. Because the problems are hard and the stakes are real, and those two things together tend to produce the most meaningful work.

The US market alone represents an enormous opportunity to rethink how technology-enabled learning partners can support universities at scale — particularly for non-traditional students who have historically been underserved by systems designed around a different era of education.

If you’re working on student success challenges in higher education — as an institution, a technology partner, or an employer investing in your workforce — I’d love to connect. The conversation is one of the most important ones happening in education right now, and it deserves more voices in the room.