Griffith University

Dewar moved from the United Kingdom in 1995 to take up a professorial position in the Griffith Law School,^[6] where he eventually became the dean of the school from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005, he was the pro vice-chancellor for business and law and then became deputy vice-chancellor (academic).

University of Melbourne

Dewar moved to the University of Melbourne in April 2009, becoming the deputy vice-chancellor (global relations).^[7] In September that year, he was appointed provost of the university, a role similar to his previous one at Griffith University.^[8] The role's focus was "on refining the Melbourne Model and ensuring successful second phase implementation of the University’s graduate programs in 2011".^[9]

La Trobe University

Dewar became the sixth vice-chancellor of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, in January 2012.^[10] On arrival, he declared that his goal was to ensure that La Trobe be "recognised as the natural alternative to Victoria's two Group of Eight universities, with a unique appeal other universities can't offer".^[11]

In 2012, Dewar announced a plan to cut 500 subjects and 41 jobs.^[12] Dewar ran from student protestors frustrated with his plan to cut university subjects and job and escaped via a network of tunnels under the university.^[13] In 2014, Dewar announced that 350 staff would be sacked without any voluntary redundancies.^[14]

In 2020 as a consequence of the effects of COVID-19 on university revenue, Dewar was one of four vice-chancellors who negotiated with the National Tertiary Education Union's leadership to deliver the Australian Universities Job Protection Framework.^[15][16] La Trobe staff subsequently voted to vary the university's collective agreement pursuant to the Job Protection Framework, opting to take pay cuts to protect the financial equivalent of around 225 jobs.^[17]

Humanities and the arts became the subject of reductions in November 2020, with Dewar informing staff that some subjects were no longer financially viable.^[18]

In 2021, Dewar consulted on a proposal to close the school of molecular science and reassign its disciplines to other schools in a bid to reduce costs.^[19]

Universities Australia

In April 2021, Dewar was elected chair of Universities Australia.^[20] In July 2022, he delivered a speech at the National Press Club arguing the case for investing in universities.^[21]

Other appointments

Dewar holds a number of other directorships including the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, the Committee for Melbourne and the Foundation for Australian Studies in China. He is also a member of the University Foreign Interference Taskforce, the University of Lincoln's 21st Century Lab Higher Education Reference Group and the Champions of Change Coalition.^[22]

He is an honorary fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, an adjunct professor in the Melbourne Law School and the La Trobe Law School, and a visiting professor at the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University.