Professor Deborah West

Deborah West is the Vice President and Executive Dean, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work with oversight of all disciplines. She joined Flinders University in August 2017 as Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching Innovation) and in 2021 moved into the Interim Deputy Vice Chancellor (Students) role before moving into her current role in 2022.

Prior to joining Flinders University, she worked in a variety of roles in several Australian Universities in the disciplinary areas of sociology and social work including as head of discipline, head of school and then in broader Faculty/College and University wide roles such as Associate Dean and Director of Learning and Teaching. She is an Advance Higher Education Principal Fellow and has an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for leadership in curriculum development.

She applies a sociological and social work lens to her research endeavours which have spanned the juvenile justice system, domestic and family violence through to learning improvement in both curriculum design and teaching practice and in particular the use of educational technology in higher education. Bringing this knowledge together she has most recently she has been focused on work which supports veterans' successful transition into higher education.

She has published extensively in the fields of social work, learning and teaching leadership, the use of educational technology and learning analytics. She has led both Australian Research Council grants and Australian Government funded learning and teaching research projects (through the former ALTC and OLT). Such projects have included national and international research projects on learning analytics.

She is the Patron of the Flinders University branch of the Australian Student Veteran Association.