Peter Høj
Peter Bordier Høj AC FAA FTSE FNAI(US) (born 29 April 1957) is a Danish-Australian academic and Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Adelaide.
He continued his study at the Carlsberg Laboratory where he obtained a Master of Science degree in biochemistry and genetics.
He replaced previous Vice-Chancellor Paul Greenfield, who resigned due to a nepotism admissions scandal that allowed his daughter to be admitted to the University of Queensland medical school without meeting all the requirements.
[11] The Chancellor of the University of Queensland, Peter Varghese, highlighted numerous different successes of Høj in his role during a recent interview.
He stood down in late 2018 from his position due to legal advice surrounding his required signing of Australia's new Foreign Interference Transparency Scheme.
Furthermore a separate investigation by Four Corner’s highlighted that the Confucius Institute had been involved with honorary staff appointments and curriculum development at the University of Queensland.
The investigation interviewed Ross Babbage, senior security adviser to the federal government, and Clive Hamilton, an academic who focuses primarily on the interference of the Chinese Communist Party at Australian universities, both suggested a review into the universities' relationship with the institute.
The Ramsey Centre is a philanthropic institute designed “to advance education by promoting studies and discussion associated with the establishment and development of western civilisation”.
[14] Høj and the university proceeded to sign a fifty million dollar deal with the Ramsay Centre to offer an extended major in Western civilisation.
The deal saw the University of Queensland obtain $50 million to fund the course, offer 30 scholarships each year worth $30,000 to students and hire 10 full-time equivalent academic staff.
The University of Queensland was severely criticised by Liberal and National MP’s such as Dave Sharma and Matt Canavan who said that this incident “only fuelled claims that UQ was pro-China before it is pro-student".
[16] Current affairs program 60 Minutes conducted an investigation on the incident causing Høj to make a statement via email that reiterated there had been no foreign influence on decisions made at the university or impact on the freedom of speech on campus.
These include but are not limited to: Høj is currently a board member of Wine Australia and of the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.
[31] He is an immediate past member of the Australian government’s Medical Research Advisory Board (April 2016 to July 2020).
"[35] In April 2019, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) presented Høj with its Asia-Pacific Leadership Award.
