Professor Alex Steel

Alex Steel is Director AI Strategy Education, and a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice.

He has extensive experience in senior leadership at university level across teaching and student support with focus on digital innovation.  As Director AI Strategy Education Alex is responsible for co-ordinating UNSW's response to generative AI.  He chairs the UNSW AI Leadership Group and the Assessment Assurance Working Group and leads the development of UNSW's Education Action Plan for AI. In his previous role as Director Teaching Strategy Alex co-ordinated UNSW's move to online teaching during COVID 19 and led a major strategic initiative to develop and implement a university wide digital assessment platform.  

He has also twice acted as Interim Pro Vice Chancellor:   Pro Vice Chancellor Education and Student Experience (2023-24); Pro Vice Chancellor Education (2019-20).  In the Faculty of Law and Justice he has been Law Associate Dean Academic (2014-16) and Law Associate Dean Education (2009-14).  He has been a member of Academic Board since 2014. 

Alex is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is an inaugural member and former Director of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy.  He has numerous teaching awards including a Commonwealth Government Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Alex has extensive experience in the development of law curriculum regulation as a member of Australian Law School Standards Committee; work for the Law Admissions Advisory Committee and the Council of Australian Law Deans; and as an Assessor for the NSW Legal Profession Admissions Board.  He is a member of the NSW Bar Association's Education Committee.  Alex has been an Executive member of the Australasian Legal Academics Association and is member of the Editorial Committee of the Legal Education Review.

As a legal academic Alex is internationally recognised for his research in both criminal law and legal education.  His legal education publications range across the pedagogy and regulation of legal education, curriculum design, assessment practices and student wellbeing. He has particular interests in student assessment and learning strategies. In the criminal law field he has published widely on property, dishonesty and identity crimes.

Alex has also produced detailed law reform reports for Government and made submissions to law reform bodies. Alex has been a member of the Criminal Law Committee of the NSW Bar Association and an expert advisor to the NSW Law Reform Commission.  For a number of years he was a Policy Officer and then Consultant to the NSW Attorney General's Department, Criminal Law Review Division.