Thank you for attending the 30th ICDE World Conference. Haere ra!

It was wonderful to host you all in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand from 10 to 13 November 2025 (in the late New Zealand spring).

The theme for the conference was Ako: Exchanging ideas for inclusive, scalable, and sustainable education. Our conference took the Māori concept of ‘ako’ (or reciprocity in learning and teaching, the exchange of ideas) as our touchstone. The design of inclusive, scalable, and sustainable education is central to the futures of global higher education, a priority for practice around the globe. The conference emphasised the 'ako' of reciprocal teaching and learning as it relates to improving educational inclusivity, scalability, and sustainability across all delegates. We hope you take the spirit of ako home so we can continue to teach and learn from each other.

The open education movement is global in scope, and so welcoming a rich international delegation to Aotearoa New Zealand meant we could discuss ideas, practices and strategies with the world's leading thinkers, practitioners, and decision-makers. Our event co-hosts, Te Kuratini Tuwhera | Open Polytechnic and Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa | Massey University represent a rich complement of open and distance education practice across vocational and academic higher education.

Hei konā mai, Goodbye for now.

Dr Mark Nichols, Te Kuratini Tuwhera | Open Polytechnic (and President, ICDE)

Professor Giselle Byrnes, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa | Massey University.