Prof. Seweryn ‘Sev’ Ozdowski

Prof. Seweryn ‘Sev’ Ozdowski (1984-86) has significantly advanced Australia’s multicultural and human rights policies and institutions. He has held senior government positions for over 25 years and has published extensively on refugee issues, multiculturalism, and human rights. As the Australian Human Rights Commissioner (2000–05), Dr Ozdowski conducted the ground-breaking review of the Australian mandatory detention system for asylum seekers entitled: “National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. A last resort?”. He was Chair of the Australian Multicultural Council (2014–22). Dr Ozdowski has an LLM and MA in Sociology degrees from Poland and a PhD from the University of New England, Australia. As a Harkness Fellow, Sev spent 1984–86 on postgraduate research at Harvard and Georgetown Universities, as well as the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded Doctor of Social Science Honoris Causa from RMIT University in 2004, and since 2006 he has been an Hon. Professor at the University of Sydney. Between 2006 and 2023, Sev served as Director of the Office of Access and Equity and as a Professor and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at Western Sydney University. Dr Ozdowski is a Member of the Order of Australia and has been awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.