Donald Markwell

Professor Don Markwell AM served as Head of St Mark's College, Adelaide, and as an Adjunct Professor of the University of Adelaide from 2019 to 2025. In December 2025, he became Head of King's College at the University of Queensland. Born in Outback Queensland, Professor Markwell studied at the universities of Queensland and Oxford (as a Rhodes Scholar), and at Princeton. He taught politics and international relations in Oxford for a decade (primarily as a Fellow of Merton College and University lecturer) before becoming Warden of Trinity College at the University of Melbourne. He has since served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) of the University of Western Australia, the global head of the Rhodes Scholarships as Warden of Rhodes House, Oxford, senior advisor to the Australian Minister for Education and to the Attorney-General of Australia, and as Warden of St Paul's College at the University of Sydney. He also, for example, worked with former Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, on the development of the New Colombo Plan, which supports Australian undergraduates to study abroad and undertake internships in the Indo-Pacific region.