Unknowable futures: How to prepare graduates for an AI-evolving world (of work)
6 February 2026
Wednesday 18 March at 2pm
CRADLE Seminar Series 2026: Seminar #2
In our second seminar for 2026 Dr Danni Hamilton, Associate Professor Lauren Hansen, and Professor Phillip Dawson share six curriculum-wide recommendations to prepare graduates for the AI-evolving world (of work).
AI is reshaping professional work, creating ethical, technical, and creative challenges that higher education must address or risk leaving graduates unprepared
Curricula need to go beyond safeguarding assessments to actively develop the capabilities students will need to succeed in the AI-evolving workplace.
To address this challenge, we propose six curriculum-wide recommendations, developed through a 16-month collaborative process involving seven disciplinary partnerships, engaging nine senior academics and 11 industry partners. The recursively structured recommendations prioritise cultivating the emerging professional self by enabling students to develop a personal, professional AI-evolved practice informed by their discipline and by scaffolded cross-disciplinary engagement.
Relational and critical encounters with AI are embedded across programs, often implicitly, positioning technology as a changing professional context within which enduring capabilities are developed, rather than as an endpoint in itself. These recommendations respond pragmatically to sector and employer needs and offer a roadmap for curriculum transformation, ensuring higher education fulfils its core purpose while preparing graduates for an unknowable future world (of work).
Join us in person or online for help preparing graduates for the AI-evolving world
About the presenters
Dr Danni Hamilton | Deakin Learning Futures
Danni Hamilton leads university-wide strategic academic capability-building programs designed to maximise the participation and achievement of all learners. Danni has extensive experience in the fields of arts, education, accessibility, and inclusion. Her research pursuits centre on experimental projects that explore the ethics of relationships at the interstices of bodies and technologies.
Associate Professor Lauren Hansen | Director, Graduate Employability
Lauren Hansen is a strategic, creative, and effective teaching and learning leader with a strong track record of successfully implementing evidence-based capability-building programs. She is a skilled and influential communicator with established and generative partnerships across Deakin and the wider sector. Lauren has extensive experience mentoring others in developing scholarly practice and scholarship.
Professor Phill Dawson | Co-director, CRADLE
Phill Dawson is most known for his research on feedback, cheating and artificial intelligence in assessment. In his cheating and artificial intelligence research, Phill is currently collaborating with Deakin colleagues on a major project into how to design assessment that is valid and appropriate for a time of artificial intelligence.
See our other guides on managing the evolving world of genAI
Coming soon… Our first seminar of 2026!
Wednesday 18 February at 6pm (AEDT) / 7am (GMT)
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