Professor David Battersby

Deputy Chair, Board of Directors

Independent Member
Appointed 25 May 2014

Prof. Battersby is the former Vice Chancellor, Federation University Australia.  Prior to this he was the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ballarat from 2006 – 2013. Prior to his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ballarat in July 2006, he held various senior appointments at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales over nearly two decades. These included the positions of Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Head of Campus and Dean of Faculty.

Professor David Battersby has a first class honours degree and a PhD from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and a masters degree in higher education from the University of New South Wales. His PhD was awarded in 1981 in the field of sociology.

Professor Battersby also worked in New Zealand at Massey University for a period of eight years. He is the recipient of awards from the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Scheme, the Commonwealth Relations Trust, the Australian-Japan Foundation and the British Council. He has undertaken consultancies for UNESCO and the OECD and a number of government agencies.

In his early academic career he taught and researched in teacher education and the sociology of education. He subsequently developed interests in gerontology and gerontological education, human resource management and development in the health professions, international education and higher education policy and has published in these areas.

He has been involved in a range of community initiatives including establishing a Commonwealth-funded GP training consortium, serving on a TAFE Council and being on the Boards of a regional music conservatorium and a regional art gallery. Professor Battersby was previously Chair of the Australian Regional Universities Network (RUN) and Chair of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka. He is currently a Director of Education Australia Limited and also a Director on the board of IDP Education Ltd.

Professor David Battersby, Vice Chancellor, Federation University Australia