Rate My Professor Ian Li

Ian Li is an accomplished economist with expertise in labour economics, health economics, and education economics. He earned his PhD in economics in 2013 and joined the University of Western Australia (UWA) as a teaching and research faculty member in 2011. Progressing through the ranks, he served as Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in the School of Population and Global Health within the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. From 2019 to 2023, he directed the Public Health Major and coordinated honours and dissertations in the school from 2014 to 2018. Li has taught across economics, law, and health sciences at UWA and Murdoch University, supervising numerous postgraduate students to completion. He currently holds the position of Senior Honorary Research Fellow in UWA's Graduate School of Education. His accolades include Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), six competitive teaching awards encompassing a national award in 2017, and the UWA Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Investigator Award in 2015.

Li's research addresses higher education policy and equity, graduate labour market outcomes, health workforce dynamics, subjective well-being, and economic evaluations, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education. Notable publications include 'Factors influencing university student satisfaction, dropout and academic performance: An Australian higher education equity perspective' (2020, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management); 'Use of checklists in reviews of health economic evaluations, 2010 to 2018' (2019); 'Vertical and horizontal mismatch in the Australian graduate labour market' (2018, The Economic Record); 'Equity in higher education and graduate labour market outcomes in Australia' (2017, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management); and 'Overeducation and earnings in the Australian graduate labour market: An application of the Vahey model' (2015, Education Economics). With 74 journal articles, four book chapters, and extensive outputs, his work has garnered significant citations. At UWA, he contributed to the Academic Board (2019-2023), Human Research Ethics Committee (2018-2021), and Equity and Participation Working Group (2017-2023). Li serves as co-editor of the Australian Journal of Labour Economics, editorial board member of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, and Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, with visiting appointments at Harvard University, Swansea University, University of Melbourne, and University of Nottingham China.