Mairéad BROWNE

Emeritus Professor Mairéad Browne has been active as an independent quality assurance consultant since 2000, building on a 25-year career as an academic leader initially at University of College Dublin in Ireland and later at The University of Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). She was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at UTS from 1991 to 1996 and the Dean of the University Graduate School from 1997 until commencing as a freelance consultant in 2001.

Professor Browne has been the chair, panel member or coordinator for many reviews, audits and accreditation activities conducted by quality assurance agencies and government entities in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Ireland, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.

Professor Browne was an auditor with the Australian Universities Quality Agency and subsequently joined the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Register of Experts. She continues to work with a range of Australian universities on a variety of consultancy projects and has conducted many reviews of academic and corporate governance for universities (and private providers) as part of their preparations for institutional re-registration by TEQSA, the Australian regulator.

Professor Browne has strong connections with post-secondary education in Hong Kong. She was the Audit Coordinator for five audits in the first cycle of the Quality Assurance Council quality audits from 2009 to 2011. She has chaired many accreditation exercises on behalf of the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications as well as provided consultancy services to the Council. In 2020-2021, she was the lead consultant in a quality assurance research project for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Education Bureau and the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education.