New Beginnings with
Professor Dan Hunter, Executive Dean By Catherine Bugler He’s a world-leading researcher in automated decision making and intellectual property, but our new Dean Professor Dan Hunter is also a start-up entrepreneur and the only Law Dean in Australia who plays video games (well, probably). Catherine Bugler spoke to Dan about university post-COVID and how he defines success. So… what does an Executive Dean do? Other universities might call my role a Pro Vice Chancellor. An Executive Dean is in charge of more than one school. In that role I look at the strategies of the schools, how to deal with large scale structural changes, how to manage the budgets, and I sit between the schools (of law and justice) and the university. In particular during COVID-19 I was the one that was responsible for making sure people who were overseas came back in time, people were able to leave campus safely. It’s a middle manager of sorts. Or a CEO? Haha yes CEO of this tiny sandbox. You completed your PhD at Cambridge University, have been a professor at New York Law School, Melbourne University, and a Foundation Dean of Swinburne. Can you say that there are clear cultures at universities? What is the culture of our Law School? I’d say that it’s progressive, friendly. The difference to the other unis I’ve been to is that people don’t attend on campus as much. Other universities have compulsory in person attendance and that impacts the culture.
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