John Moses is a graduate of the University of Queensland, Department of History under its then Head, the late Professor Gordon Greenwood. In 1961 he continued post-graduate studies in Germany at the Universities of Munich 1961–63 and then in Erlangen, 1963–65 where he graduated D.Phil. before returning to Brisbane to join the Department of History. Here he served until retirement in 1989, having spent frequent lengthy study leaves in Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.