The 2026 Forum took place online via Zoom on 5 November 2026, in two regional sessions to accommodate different time zones.
The Forum was an exclusive leadership space for senior executives from ICDE member institutions and organisations.
Rising to the challenge of sustainability
Global presidents’ forum 2026
The Global Presidents’ Forum (GPF), chaired by ICDE President Mark Nichols, is an exclusive leadership space for senior executives from ICDE member institutions and organisations.
The 2026 Forum convened leaders around the theme “Sustainability: how do we respond to the big challenges?”
Why the Global Presidents’ Forum?
Leaders need space for candid, peer-level discussion of the issues absorbing the greatest strategic attention and institutional energy.
Sustainability decisions are interconnected: financial, environmental, technological, academic and organisational choices cannot be addressed in isolation. ICDE’s global membership offers a distinctive vantage point for comparing approaches across regions and institutional models.
The Forum turned that breadth of experience into practical insight and identified the questions that call for continued collective work through 2027.
Session 1:
Session 2:
The perspectives and lessons shared during the Forum will inform a forthcoming report, capturing key insights from the discussions and making them available to the wider ICDE community.
Many of the challenges universities face are common internationally: growing competitiveness beyond traditional regional boundaries, greater care for the physical environment, pressure to improve IT infrastructure, and constant funder demands for efficiency and social benefit.
ICDE President & Executive Director, Open Polytechnic NZ
What sits within your influence?
The focus of the GPF 2026
The Forum connected immediate pressures with long-term institutional purpose, focusing on the choices that sit within the influence of Presidents, Vice-Chancellors, Rectors, Principals and CEOs.