Dr Babacan holds Honours degrees in Law and Political Science, a PhD and a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching in Learning. He has undertaken research work in government and has worked as a legal practitioner for many years, predominantly in the areas of civil litigation and commercial law.

In academia, Dr Babacan has held various senior positions including as Director of RMIT’s law program, discipline leader of law at Swinburne University and deputy head of a large multidisciplinary school at Swinburne University and head of criminology at Navitas. He has extensive experience in unit and course development, accreditation and review. He has published very widely in areas of law, criminology and teaching and learning in the higher education sector with a specific focus on the scholarship of learning in legal education