Citation for Emeritus Professor Ian Harper AO
Chancellor,
Emeritus Professor Ian Harper AO is one of Australia’s most highly regarded economists. Over the past 4 decades, he has served as an academic leader, an expert public policy adviser to government and a trusted consultant to a range of Australian corporations.
Professor Harper graduated from The University of Queensland (UQ) in 1978 with a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) and a University Medal for academic excellence. He subsequently obtained a Master of Economics from the Australian National University (ANU) in 1979 before completing his Doctor of Philosophy at ANU in 1982.
Early in his career, Professor Harper joined the Reserve Bank of Australia as an economic researcher. Two years later he moved into academia, working as a Lecturer in economics at ANU, before taking up an appointment at The University of Melbourne in 1988. Between 1993 and 2008, he taught various subjects at the Melbourne Business School. Later he returned to The University of Melbourne, serving as Dean of Melbourne Business School, and co-Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, for 5 years prior to his retirement in 2023.
In between working in academia, Professor Harper served governments of all persuasions. In 1996, he was appointed as a Member of the Wallis Inquiry into Australia’s financial system. From 2005 to 2009, he was Chairman of the Australian Fair Pay Commission. In 2011 and 2012, he served as a panel member on an Independent Review of State Finances in Victoria. In 2015, he chaired the Competition Policy Review, which produced a final report to the Australian Government that is known simply as the “Harper Review”, and he has served as a Member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia since 2016.
In addition, between 2008 and 2016, he was a Director of Access Economics, and later a Partner of Deloitte Access Economics. He also served as a Member of the Advisory Board for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Australia.
Professor Harper was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2000, and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2009. In 2016, he received a Vice-Chancellor’s Alumni Excellence Award from UQ. And in 2020, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to education in the field of economics and public and monetary policy development and reform.
Chancellor, I present to you Emeritus Professor Ian Harper, Officer of the Order of Australia, Bachelor of Economics with honours of this University, Master of Economics and Doctor of Philosophy of the Australian National University, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Distinguished Public Policy Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia, for the award of Doctor of Economics honoris causa, bestowed by the Senate of The University of Queensland.
