Peter Duffy

Academic Director Newcastle Australia Institute of Higher Education (NAIHE)

Associate Professor Peter Duffy is the Academic Director at the Newcastle Australia Institute of Higher Education. He is an innovative and strategic Higher Education leader with over 30 years’ experience in academic transformation, digital education, curriculum reform, and quality assurance across Australia and Asia. Demonstrated expertise in building academic and institutional capability, leading multimillion-dollar educational projects, and fostering cultures of scholarship and innovation. Extensive success in senior leadership roles including Deputy President (Education), Director of Learning and Teaching, Associate Director (Curriculum Development) and Head of the Innovation Hub. Accomplished leader of multi-disciplinary teams with a deep understanding of pedagogical innovation, curriculum enhancement and compliance, and technology adoption aligned to future-ready education. He is recognised as a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and globally through awards, fellowships, and impactful contributions to institutional transformation. 

Associate Professor Peter Duffy has been involved in the education field for the last 30+ years as a teacher, researcher, and leader. During this time, his areas of research interest have spanned eLearning / blended learning, institutional approaches to organisational change (via doctoral research) and the impact of staff as agents of change/communities of practice, innovation adoption and the creative process using technology, educational quality assurance frameworks and standards and most recently the area of learning analytics. I have been an active contributor to scholarship in the field of education across these areas via funded projects, keynotes, presentations, publications, and consultancies. 

He has a proven track record of success in applying for and leading to the successful completion of many large-scale, award-winning digital teaching and learning research grants and initiatives. Having led or been involved in ~30 projects, totalling ~ 12M SGD in funding over ~20 years within various institutions in Hong Kong and Australia. Assoc. Prof. Duffy has served as the Chair of Working groups and task forces on curriculum reform, learning and teaching development, Quality Assurance Council audits, governance reform, and compliance. He was the institutional representative to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA, Australia), the Quality Assurance Council (QAC, Hong Kong), and the University Grants Committee (UGC, Hong Kong).  

Associate Professor Peter Duffy is a passionate educator having taught at Secondary, Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Vocational contexts. He has been an invited presenter at many local and international events, including an invited session chair at the GUIDE (Global Universities in Distance Education) International Forum in Rome, and an invited speaker and facilitator at the Australian Education Minister’s Awards. He has extensive educational expertise and has offered more than 75 Masterclasses across most areas of educational theory and practice, including Quality Assurance of Online Education, Learning Analytics, Blended Learning, and Strategies for Organisational Transformation.