Dermot Walsh

Senior Assistant Ombudsman, Overseas Student Ombudsman

Dermot Walsh has been the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Chief Operating Officer since October 2015. In June 2018 he moved to the role of Senior Assistant Ombudsman of the newly established Industry Branch. The Industry Branch brings together all of the Office’s industry ombudsman functions, including: private health insurance, postal industry, overseas students and VET student loans.

Before joining the Office, Dermot held leadership roles in both the Australian and ACT Public Service, in a diverse range of organisationsincluding the ACT Land Development Agency, ACT Economic Development Directorate, Comcare, the National Gallery of Australia, the Defence Service Homes Insurance Scheme and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Dermot has a Bachelor of Commerce, is a Fellow member of CPA Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

All Sessions by Dermot Walsh

  • Symposium


  • 14.00 p.m  - 14.30 p.m
    The Commonwealth Ombudsman can take complaints from international students about private education providers, and through them, their education agents. So it’s not surprising that we tend to hear only about things that go wrong. This is the case with education agents. We know that the majority of education agents do a very good job representing providers to students and appreciate just how important education agents are to Australia’s international education industry. Although complaints and investigations about education agents are a small proportion of all the complaints the Ombudsman receives, the complaints do allow us to identify systemic issues, such as those discussed in the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s issues paper on investigation of complaints about a specific education agent. In his talk, Senior Assistant Ombudsman Dermot Walsh will go through some scenarios highlighted in the issues paper, and discuss some challenges for private education providers and education agents alike as Australia implements its first National Strategy for International Education 2025 .
    Education General




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Dermot Walsh