[3][4][5] Professor Hughes was born and raised in Belfast, educated at St. Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School and at Queen's University Belfast where he obtained a BSc with First Class Honours in Mathematics and a PhD in Theoretical Physics.
[6] Following appointments at Queen's and at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, he became Professor of Information Systems Engineering at the University of Ulster in 1991.
There he held a range of senior academic positions and was actively involved in promoting research and technology transfer initiatives which attracted substantial funding to the university.
[8] Hughes was criticised for appointing his then wife to a high-paying position at Bangor,[9] and the purchase and refurbishment of his house by the university (costing the institution £750,000)[9][10][11] as well as for a number of other scandals and for being a non-Welsh speaker.
[16] When a new financial crisis as well as allegations of racist and sexist harassment against his ex-wife were revealed in late 2018, Bangor University announced Hughes's resignation by December 2018, eight months ahead of his ordinary retirement.