 Subsequently, he held lectureships at the University College of South Wales at Cardiff, and then the University College of North Wales at Bangor.In 1951 he was appointed to the first Chair in Philosophy at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, a position from which he retired in 1984.He died in Wellington on 4 March 1994.

Notable influences on Hughes' philosophical development included John Wisdom and Ludwig Wittgenstein, from whom he took classes at Cambridge; J. L. Austin, a leading exponent of ordinary language philosophy; and Arthur Prior, with whom he found much in common when they met in New Zealand.