Professor Kwong Lee Dow retired from the University of Melbourne as Vice-Chancellor in 2004, having earlier been Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Education over a 20 year period. He was also Vice-Chancellor pro tem at the University of Ballarat in 2006.

Beginning his working life as a science and mathematics teacher, Kwong became a College Lecturer in Chemistry and then Senior Lecturer in Education at Melbourne University. He was appointed as a Professor in 1973.

Over the years he has held various Victorian and Commonwealth Government appointments. From 1997 to 2003 he chaired the Victorian Board of Studies, later the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. In 2002-03 he chaired a Commonwealth Review of Teaching and Teacher Education and, since its establishment, has been Deputy Chair of the National Institute for Quality Teaching and School Leadership.

From 1992-2003 Kwong was a member of the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation and helped to found the Hong Kong Institute of Education, serving on its Council. He has participated in reviews of the National Institute of Education in Singapore and of universities in New Zealand, most recently in an audit of Victoria University of Wellington in 2005.

Kwong was appointed Member of the Order of Australia in 1984, received the Sir James Darling Medal of the Australian College of Education in 1994, in 2005 was awarded the Gold Medal of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders and in 2012 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Professor Kwong Lee Dow was appointed to the University of Tasmania Council in March 2014.