Racism “deeply embedded” across Australian unis, landmark study finds

More than 76,000 students and staff from 42 universities across the country participated in the study, which found that 15% of respondents have experienced direct interpersonal racism at university.

Some 70% of survey respondents report experiencing indirect racism, including hearing or seeing racist behaviour directed at their community.

Jewish (religious) and Palestinian respondents report experiences of racism at rates over 90%. First Nations, Chinese, Jewish (secular), Middle Eastern and Northeast Asian respondents all report experiences of racism at rates over 80%.

And 19% of respondents, who did not report experiencing direct or indirect racism at university, have witnessed racism.

Some 14,154 international students responded to the survey, representing approximately 2.9% of the international student population. Findings show that three in four international student respondents have experienced indirect racism at university.

The report also suggests low trusts in university complaints systems – finding that only 6% of people who experience direct racism make a complaint to their university, with many citing fear of consequences.

The Albanese government commissioned the report in response to a recommendation of the Universities Accord. In light of the findings, the report titled Respect at Uni: Study into antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and the experience of First Nations people has made 47 recommendations to government and universities.

The report’s recommendations include:

establishing a national framework to address racism in universities;

strengthening complaints processes and accountability; and

improving support for students and staff who experience racism.

Race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, said the report offers Australia a chance to confront the colonial foundations of its universities and how those structures may be continuing to shape exclusion today.

Universities aren’t just places where people work and study, they are also places where people live, and we need to ensure they are safe and free from racismJason Clare, Australian education minister

The government will now consider the report’s findings and recommendations as part of its broader higher education reform agenda. Commenting on the findings, education minister Jason Clare said: “There is no place for any form of racism in our universities or anywhere else.

“Universities aren’t just places where people work and study, they are also places where people live, and we need to ensure they are safe and free from racism,” continued Clare.

Since the report’s release, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has called on universities to “embed student wellbeing outcomes into their core performance frameworks”.

Doctoral (HDR) students experienced direct racism at higher rates than undergraduate students, which Gemma Lucy Smart, CAPA board chair, said exposes a “critical problem with power and safety”.

“When your supervisor controls your funding, research direction, and academic future, reporting their racism isn’t just difficult – it can feel impossible. We need independent grievance pathways that protect HDR students from retaliation,” added Smart.

“Racism from supervisors can manifest as preferential financial or resource support, as well as discrimination when it comes to authorship on publications, all of which have huge repercussions on a candidate’s future,” added Jesse Gardner-Russell, CAPA national president.

Meanwhile, Erin O’Donoghue, Kamilaroi/Gomeroi woman and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association president, described how it is “not uncommon for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR candidates to have to justify using cultural ways and Indigenist methodologies in research”.

“Adding structural barriers to our research ethics and study design is disheartening and further locks our community out of academia. We are having to get approval to work with our own mobs, our own communities,” said O’Donoghue.