Emeritus Professor Amarjit Kaur

Appointment citation

Professor Kaur (BA Hons, MA, Dip.Ed [Malaya]; Cert in Southeast Asian Studies, M.Phil, PhD [Columbia]) joined University of New England in December 1990 and was employed here until February 2014 – holding major leadership roles at University, Faculty and Departmental levels within the Faculty of Economics, Business and Law (and more recently, the UNE Business School). These roles included:  Head, Department of Economic History; Professor of Economic History; Chair of UNE's Scholarships and Study Leave Committees; Acting Head, Economics as well as Acting Dean within the Faculty of Economics, Business and Law. In fulfilling these roles and in participating in a range of other UNE committees, playing an instrumental role in undergraduate curriculum development  and the design of new units on Asian economic development that have been crucial to UNE's international partnership activities, Professor Kaur has made an outstanding contribution to the life of the University of New England.

Professor Kaur is an eminent scholar with a distinguished international reputation – she is one of Australia's pre-eminent social scientists and has published widely. Professor Kaur's research on Migration in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific embodies issues of human mobility, inter-regional migration dynamics, the role of gender in determining labour market outcomes and assessment of remittance volumes and regulatory environments. This work has highlighted important social and economic inequities and injustices in migration movements.

Professor Kaur was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Research Excellence Award in 2000 and again in 2008, elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in 2000. Her work has also been supported and significantly funded by the Australian Research Council, AusAID, Wellcome Trust (UK), International Institute of Social History, and the Japan and Toyota Foundations. Professor Kaur has also supervised nine PhD students and about 15 Masters' and Honours students, with one of her PhD students graduating cum laude in 2011 and another awarded a high distinction for his Master of Economics in 2013.

As a respected leader with significant academic and research contributions to the University and her academic discipline during her period of appointment, it is fitting for Council to award the title of Emeritus Professor to Professor Amarjit Kaur.

For further information and a link to Emeritus Professor Kaur's UNE staff profile page, click here.