Andrich is currently a Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia, where he holds the Chapple Chair in Education.

Andrich completed his PhD at the University of Chicago's MESA program in the School of Education in 1973.

In 1977, he spent six months as a fellow of the Danish Institute for Educational Research working with the late Danish mathematician Georg Rasch, and he spent another six months as a research fellow at the University of Chicago working with Benjamin D Wright|.

Andrich has organized a series of conferences on Rasch measurement models hosted in Perth, Western Australia, which have attracted researchers from a wide array of countries.

[6] As recognition for his works, he was awarded the Susan Colver Rosenberger prize for his research while completing his PhD at the University of Chicago.