Speaking exclusively to The PIE News, Jones reflected on the rise of Navitas, which started out 20 years ago with one partnership with Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

The Australia-based education provider and listed company has since diversified and expanded globally and reported half-year results with revenues of AUS$480 million.

Its origins were based on Jones’ observation that up to 70% of international students were failing a subject and lacked adequate support to succeed at university level.

The company now offers a range of education products focused on international students within prime education destinations. It has three main divisions of university programmes (pathway), professional and English programmes and creative media arts under the SAE brand.

In the future, Jones predicted that students may expect to cherry pick parts of their degree education from various institutions, and blended learning will be inevitable.

“We will move towards what I call a global education in the sense that students won’t necessarily pick up all of their degree from one university,” he said. “They will be able to select parts of what they want to put together for a qualification and they could come from anywhere in the world.”

He also forecast that public-private partnerships, such as those Navitas forms with university partners, will continue to prosper.

“The partnership model will be such a strong part of being successful in the future.”

Watch the full video with Rod Jones here and also learn his thoughts on education agencies’ role in the future.