Pauline Collins

Pauline Collins is a Professor of Law at the University of Southern Queensland, where she teaches dispute management and international humanitarian law. She is actively involved in research, publishing, and public engagement on legal and academic integrity issues. Her work spans legal practice, academia, and policy, with a focus on civil-military legal relations, dispute resolution, and higher education ethics.

Pauline's research interests center on international humanitarian law, dispute management, and legal aspects of civil-military relations. She has also conducted significant research on grade inflation in Australian universities, exploring the pressures faced by academics and the systemic drivers behind lenient grading. Her work combines doctrinal legal analysis with empirical studies on academic behavior and institutional culture.

Her recent publications highlight a strong trend in academic ethics, legal education reform, and veterans' legal issues. The 2025 article on grade inflation, co-authored with colleagues, analyzes survey data from Australian university teachers, identifying administrative pressure, student evaluations, and fear of complaints as key factors. This work contributes to broader debates on the integrity and future of higher education.

• Giueseppe Caforio ERGOMAS Book Award 2019

Pauline Collins is actively engaged in research supervision and collaboration. She currently leads a project on veterans in prison, funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs through Open Door at Flinders University. While no specific grants are listed beyond this, her research supervision and consulting activities indicate ongoing engagement with academic and policy communities. She also serves as co-general editor of the Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, contributing to scholarly discourse in her field.

Pauline is a NMAS-qualified mediator and contributes to public legal education through media engagement and public speaking. There is no mention of formal lab or research team affiliations, but her collaborative research and editorial role suggest active participation in academic networks and interdisciplinary projects.