Hamish Coates is the Executive Dean of Holmes Institute, Australia’s largest independently owned higher education institution and the flagship of the global Holmes Education Group. He was a Tenured Professor at Tsinghua University’s Institute of Education, Director of the Higher Education Research Division, and Deputy Director of Tsinghua’s Global Research Centre for the Assessment of College and Student Development. He was a Tenured Professor of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, Founding Director of Higher Education Research at the Australian Council for Educational Research, and Program Director at the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Leadership and Management. He concentrates on improving the quality and productivity of higher education.

Hamish contributes to the field of higher education through leadership, research, innovation, and advising. Spanning 25 years he has held executive appointments at prestigious institutions, led over 150 influential projects, worked across 50+ countries, authored 40 books/monographs and 200 academic papers and 120 reports, created and led partnerships and consortia, edited and advised top journals, procured over AU$28 million in funding, led major regulatory initiatives, convened hundreds of conferences/workshops, advised top leaders, delivered 400 keynotes and invited presentations, engineered education platforms and policy solutions, and generated teaching/research revenue streams. He is a highly cited researcher and sought globally as a speaker with an h-index of 50 and 13,000 citations.

Recent books include Higher Education Design: Big deal partnerships, technologies and capabilities; Global University President Leadership: Insights on higher education futures; A Turning Point for Chinese Higher Education: Developing hybrid education at Tsinghua University; and Global Student Engagement: Policy Insights and International Research Perspectives.