The stubborn art of being human: A symposium on AI, students, and the future of higher education
The Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN) presents The stubborn art of being human: a symposium on AI, students, and the future of higher education, a free in-person and online event on Thursday 19 November, 11:00am to 4:30pm (AEDT).
In March 2025, our symposium GenAI: Graduate skills and employability left us with a challenge: be bold, be brave, be curious, and treat AI as a tool that augments human skills rather than replacing them. Eighteen months on, we are checking in. What played out how we thought? What didn’t turn out the way we expected? And what has changed that nobody saw coming?
This year, students are at the centre of the conversation. You will hear from students about how they really use AI and how they feel about their futures; from employers about what they now need from graduates; and from educators who are redesigning curriculum and assessment in real time. Then our academics will debate that you could replace them with an AI and no-one would notice. Students get the last word.
Expect honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations, with a constructive purpose: working out what universities, students and industry can do together so that educators can prepare the graduates of tomorrow for the workforce of the future, and so that the things only humans can do are the things we guide our graduates to do best.
Who would find this event particularly interesting
- Students and recent graduates who want a say in how education changes
- Educators, academic leaders and learning designers across tertiary education
- Employers across small, medium and large enterprises who hire graduates and upskill their workforces
- Policy makers and anyone interested in the future of work and learning
Program
- 11:05am Keynote | Mohammad Chowdhury (CEO, Long Street Advisors & Visiting Fellow, University of Technology Sydney)
- 11:30am Student panel | [Re]claiming the art of learning in an AI-enabled world
- 1:10pm Industry panel | Hire the human: What employers need from graduates now
- 1:55pm Curriculum panel | Teaching the stubborn art: Curriculum, assessment, and credit when AI can do the homework
- 3:05pm Hypothetical discussion | You could replace each of us with an AI and no-one would notice
- 3:55pm Student reflections | The last word: What should we be stubborn about?
11:05am Keynote
11:30am Student Panel | [Re]claiming the art of learning in an AI-enabled world
This student panel explores what it means to reclaim learning as a distinctly human practice in an AI-enabled world. Panellists will consider where AI can support learners – and where it cannot – from reducing routine demands and shortening the path from idea to product, to navigating online learning, assessment and a rapidly changing workplace. At the heart of the conversation is a critical tension: how can students think with AI without outsourcing the intellectual effort, productive struggle and personal investment through which learning takes shape? Rather than rejecting AI, the panel asks what we should continue to do slowly and deliberately because the thinking, questioning and becoming are the point.
1:10pm Industry panel | Hire the human: What employers need from graduates now
In March 2025, employers told us critical thinking and problem-solving had never mattered more. Since then, AI tools have moved deeper into everyday work. This panel asks employers what has actually changed inside their organisations, what they now look for in a graduate, where they need to upskill their workforce, where universities are getting it right or could do more, and – in the panellists’ industries – what remains stubbornly and critically human.
1:55pm Curriculum panel | Teaching the stubborn art: Curriculum, assessment and credit when AI can do the homework
Students have told us how they learn. Employers have told us what they need. Now educators take on the enormous task of determining what good teaching looks like. AI is also changing how students find, evaluate, create and cite information, raising questions of authorship, evidence and epistemic trust across every discipline. This panel looks at how ATN universities are guiding educators and students through this shift, through policy and assessment redesign, assurance, teacher capabilities, and AI and information literacy. Panellists will then reflect on the larger questions of where the value of a university education now lies, and whether our structures, incentives and partnerships are fit for that purpose.
3:05pm Hypothetical discussion | You could replace each of us with an AI and no-one would notice
Six academics, one uncomfortable hypothetical discussion. Expect a provocative, entertaining counterpoint to the day with the topic serving as a vehicle for exploring the tensions, assumptions and implications of AI in higher education. Lively conversation will surface different perspectives and a more light-hearted reflection on AI.
3:55pm Student reflections | The last word: What should we be stubborn about?
Our student panel return to close the symposium. They test the 2025 message (be bold, be brave, be curious; augment, don’t replace) against everything they heard, and decide what still holds, what has changed, and what they would add for 2026.
