Emeritus Professor Jeanette Hacket AM

As Vice-Chancellor, Jeanette Hacket was strongly committed to extending Curtin’s international operations. Under her leadership the Curtin Singapore campus was established in 2008.

Jeanette Hacket was the first female Vice-Chancellor of Curtin University, a legal practitioner with long-term experience at Curtin in both teaching and senior management roles. She is highly regarded for building strong foundations for the University in a financially challenging higher education landscape and for further consolidating Curtin’s internationalisation strategy.

Under her leadership, Curtin jumped in several international rankings that demonstrated its significant research and teaching achievements. These were elevated, in part, by major initiatives that came to fruition in the Hacket era: the Murchison Widefield Array and Square Kilometre Array; the Resources and Chemistry Precinct; the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute; and the Engineering Pavilion.

Hacket embraced the digital revolution in teaching and learning, oversaw planning for the establishment of the Curtin Law School and the Curtin Medical School and championed Curtin’s growth as a knowledge hub and thriving urban precinct through the Greater Curtin development. She retired in 2013.