Don Anderson completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in Psychology at the University of Melbourne in the early 1950s when role theory was still popular and the social context was being researched as an important influence on behaviour.

He tutored in psychology and worked as student counsellor before heading the new education Research unit at University of Melbourne. In 1968, he was appointed to initiate education research in the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University. While there, he participated in conversations that led to the development of HERDSA, of which he has been a lifetime member.

His research has been in the borderland between psychology and sociology, a good deal of it on policy related educational topics. A central interest has been ‘what institutions do to people’  for example schools to adolescents; or universities and the professions to students entering teaching, law, medicine and engineering. He has chaired inquiries into tertiary education for state governments and into the public-private divide in schooling for the Commonwealth. He was chairman of the ACT  Education Authority and the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching.

He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Continuing Education and the Centre for Education Development and Academic Methods at ANU.