CDEV3500 / CDEV6500 Future Leader Lab
Collaborate with students in this interdisciplinary course to tackle UN Sustainable Development Goals, while enhancing your leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Enrol now for Term 3 2026.
Future Leader Lab gives you the opportunity to explore a real-world sustainability challenge and consider how leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship can drive meaningful change.
Working collaboratively with students and partners from across the university, community and industry, you’ll develop practical leadership skills and apply new ideas to create innovative, sustainable solutions.
Available in Summer Term, Term 1, Term 2C and Term 3, Future Leader Lab is a 6 UOC course available as a general education or free elective for undergraduate students through CDEV3500 and postgraduate students through CDEV6500. It’s an opportunity to grow your leadership potential, expand your network and shape positive change beyond the classroom.
Term 3 2026
Did you know that one in four UNSW students has skipped a meal because of financial hardship, while Arc’s Food Hub recorded more than 65,000 visits in 2024?
Food insecurity extends well beyond campus. Research indicates that half of renters in NSW experience food insecurity, while 1.2 million Australian children live in food-insecure households. At the same time, Australia discards 7.6 million tonnes of food each year, around 70% of which is edible. That is enough food waste to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground 10 times.
In Term 3, Future Leader Lab will explore how we can respond to this challenge. You’ll build skills in leadership, innovation, entrepreneurial thinking and problem-solving while learning from people and organisations working to address food insecurity in the community. Working in interdisciplinary teams, you’ll examine the opportunities and challenges of circular economy approaches and prototype practical solutions with the potential to create meaningful change.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Through this course, you’ll contribute to progress towards three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
2. Zero Hunger
3. Good Health and Wellbeing
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
You’ll also strengthen your creativity, collaboration, communication, digital literacy and problem-solving skills.
Join Future Leader Lab and help design practical responses to food insecurity, a real-world challenge affecting communities right now.
Course details and eligibility
- Worth 6 units of credit (UOC) and available as a General Education or Free Elective course.
- Uses the standard UNSW grading scheme.
- Applies problem-based learning, with students working in interdisciplinary teams to explore how leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship can respond to a complex, real-world sustainability challenge.
- Concludes with a team pitch to stakeholders, presenting a potential solution to the challenge. The assessment is completed as a group, with students marked individually.
- Course lecturer: Petra Stark.
More information
View the course handbook:
For more information about the Future Leader Lab, email the Experiential Learning team at el@unsw.edu.au.
Please be advised that Experiential Learning does not have visibility over individual students’ study progressions. As such, we are unable to confirm your eligibility to enrol in the course. It is the student’s responsibility to consult with their faculty or academic advisor to confirm eligibility and ensure alignment with their study progression and graduation requirements.
Check your eligibility
- Self-check with myPlan
- Enquire with The Nucleus
No space in your program? Submit a Course Substitution Request
Students share their experience
"A particular strength of the course was its in-depth examination of the Circular Economy, which not only deepened my knowledge of this topic but also revealed the potential for innovative solutions to emerge from reframing traditional problems."
"Everything I’ve learned has made the future I want so much clearer. You get to be really hands-on with your learning, meet a variety of experts in different fields, and grow alongside a cohort of students from diverse backgrounds."