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Mark Evans

DVC (Research)

Professor Mark Evans

PhD, FRSN, FIPAA

DVC (Research)

Professor Mark Evans (PhD, FIPPA, FRSN) was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research at Charles Sturt University in January 2022. Prior to taking on his role at Charles Sturt in 2022, Mark was Director of Democracy 2025 at the Australian Museum of Democracy, Director and Professor of Governance at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis and Dean of the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra and Director of the World-wide Universities Public Policy Network. He was also the Australia-New Zealand School of Government Professor of Governance from 2009 to 2014 and editor of the international journal Policy Studies from 2004-18.

International experience

Mark has also held several prestigious roles abroad including: Head of the Department of Politics, Provost of Halifax College and Chair (International) at the University of York in the United Kingdom; Vice President of the United Kingdom’s Joint University Council for the Applied Social Sciences; Director of the World-wide Universities Public Policy Network; and co-convenor of the China-Europe Public Administration Group. In 2007 he codesigned a National Masters programme in Public Administration for senior officials with Renmin University and the China Academy of Governance.

Mark has co-created many successful inter/multi-disciplinary research institutes, centres and collaborations. At the University of York in the UK this included:

  • the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit
  • Politics, Economics and Philosophy School
  • Alcuin Research Collaboration
  • Halifax College
  • York Law School.

In Australia, this has included:

  • the ANZSOG Institute for Governance, Institute for Governance
  • Collaborative Research Network on Murray Darling Basin Futures
  • “50/50 by 2030” (Gender Equality) Foundation led by Dame Quentin Bryce
  • Democracy 2025 at the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Governance advisory and memberships

He has a longstanding track record both in studying and designing new forms of democratic governance including:

  • the award winning European Citizens Consultation (European Union)
  • working as a Senior Advisor with the Office of the Presidency in Brazil on a new federal law on social participation (European Union)
  • co-designing the Community Development Council model in Afghanistan (World Bank)
  • designing governance strategies to address the disconnect between government and citizen after the Arab Spring (United Nations Development Program).

Mark has a distinguished record in advising Australian Commonwealth Departments on large-scale change processes, policy innovation and social inclusion programming and has played an international role in supporting change governance practices, acting as a senior policy advisor, and managing research and evaluation projects in 26 countries, including Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Libya, Sri Lanka, the UK, Vietnam, and via the European Union (EU), the United Nations and the World Bank. Mark is also a member of the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank, United Nations and European Union Expert Panels. He is also a leading designer of executive and postgraduate education programmes for the Australian Commonwealth government with over 1000 graduates and has supervised 27 PhD students to completion.

Honorary and visiting professorships

Mark has also benefitted from a range of honorary/visiting professorships that demonstrate his international profile and access to international networks at the Universities of Hull (in British politics), York (in post conflict reconstruction), Renmin and the China Academy of Governance in China (in governance), Gadjah Mahda, Indonesia (in governance) and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar in public value creation. In Australia, he been awarded a national fellowship of the Institute of Public Administration Australia for “outstanding contribution to the study and practice of public administration” and a national fellowship of the Royal Society (NSW).

Proudest achievements

Mark records as his proudest achievements in his career the establishment of: with Professor Sultan Barakat the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit in the Department of Politics and Halifax College at the University of York and the Institute for Governance at the University of Canberra; the successful supervision of 27 PhD students; and the launch of the “50-50 by 2030 Foundation” with Dame Quentin Bryce as its patron. The Foundation is dedicated to the provision of high-quality research and advocacy on gender equality issues.

Mark’s latest books (with Gerry Stoker) include Evidence based Policymaking and the Social Sciences – Methods that Matter (Policy Press) and Saving Democracy (Bloomsbury), and with Michelle Grattan From Turnbull to Morrison – Trust Divide (Melbourne University Press). He has just completed coordinating the 2024 Democratic Audit of Australia for publication by LSE Press this year.