Professor John Williamson is Chair of the University's Academic Senate. He has served on Council since September 2001.

Professor Williamson is a graduate of New South Wales, Sydney and Curtin Universities and completed his PhD at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. He was appointed Professor of Education at the University of Tasmania's Launceston campus in 1993 and was Head of the School of Secondary and Post-Compulsory Education in the Faculty of Education until 2001 when he was appointed Acting Dean.

Professor Williamson is an internationally recognised specialist in the fields of professional development, teacher education, and curriculum innovation.

His research interests are in the areas of the study of teaching, teacher education, teachers' work-lives and vocational education and training and he has published extensively in these areas, including several books. He has been a consultant to the OECD and conducted related activities in France, Japan, Mexico and the United States. Currently he is a co-director of a nine-country study of teachers' work-lives and the progressive findings from this study have been reported annually (over the past five years) at the American Educational Research Association conference, the largest and most prestigious education conference in the English-speaking world. In 2004 he co-edited a monograph drawing together some of the teachers' work lives data.

“The University of Tasmania has an excellent reputation for its teaching and research. We must ensure, however, that in the face of the broad challenges confronting Australian universities that we continue to offer quality courses and conduct research of international standing. Our University, as the largest higher education institution in the State, faces particular challenges – financial, social and cultural – in its commitment to a serious state-wide presence and a comprehensive range of courses,” he says.

Professor Williamson is passionate about the need for tertiary education to be available and readily accessible for all those who have the capacity for either formal or non-award courses as part of an ongoing commitment to their own learning. “The University is in a wonderful position to give effect to the idea of life-long learning.

“We must ensure we play our role by providing quality courses for all those who are able to benefit from a university education, no matter what their age, location or cultural background.”

Professor Williamson has represented the University on the Tasmanian Accreditation and Review Committee and on the newly formed Teachers' Registration Board.