Presented at the Wharton QS Reimagine Education Conference in December 2021.

Innovative, complex and authentic transdisciplinary ‘Impact Labs’ were introduced across the reimagined QUT Bachelor of Design curriculum in 2019. Drawing on stakeholder feedback reflecting shifting employer and global needs, the four units, ‘Place’, ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Purpose’ aim to future-proof design students’ careers. Labs facilitate the gradual development of students’ theoretical understandings of societal and global issues. Experiential, inquiry-led design challenges undertaken in the labs build students’ core design skills and twenty-first century capabilities including transdisciplinary collaboration, reflection, networking and profile-building. The scalable model supports large cohorts and mutually-beneficial industry partnerships, while facilitating repeated intimate, transformative and ethically-grounded design experiences.