Study Exposes Rampant Racism at Australian Universities
The report, titled Respect at Uni: Study into Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Racism and the Experience of First Nations People, surveyed more than 75,000 participants across 42 institutions, delivering an unprecedented and deeply troubling portrait of campus life nationwide.
Among its most alarming findings: 14.9% of respondents experienced direct interpersonal racism, with one in five academic staff members reporting being personally targeted. International students bore a disproportionate burden, with three in four reporting exposure to indirect racism.
The study further documented sharp surges in racist incidents during periods of heightened social tension — including the COVID-19 pandemic and Israel's war in Gaza. Students of Chinese background were among those who reported heightened harassment during the pandemic.
The human toll of these findings was captured in testimony gathered from affected individuals. A Middle Eastern staff member quoted in the report said: "After 15 years in universities, I've never seen it worse… the fear around expressing views if you're from the Middle East is overwhelming."
A Jewish student also quoted in the report said: "I'd encountered antisemitism before, but I had never been scared to be Jewish. In university, I frequently feel the need to hide my religion."
Albanese Government Faces Criticism
Senator Mehreen Faruqi, deputy leader of the Australian Greens and the party's anti-racism spokesperson, did not mince words in responding to the report's release.
"This report may come as a shock to those who don't experience racism, but for the rest of us, it is business as usual," said the Pakistani-origin senator.
"It lays bare the terrifying truth: racism is not an exception in our universities, it is the rule, and it is harming students and staff across racial and religious groups," she said.
Faruqi urged the federal government to enact the report's recommended sector-wide reforms and dismantle what she termed "sham one-sided antisemitism report cards." She also directed pointed criticism at the ruling party over its record on anti-Palestinian discrimination.
"The Albanese Government has been gaslighting and dismissing anti-Palestinian racism for the last two years of Israel's genocide in Gaza, but with Palestinian respondents experiencing the highest levels of racism, the Government can no longer refuse to accept this reality," she said.
Deep Structural Roots
The report traces the problem beyond individual behavior, identifying historical and institutional foundations of campus racism. Many of Australia's universities were established during the colonial era — some predating the abolition of the White Australia Policy — and were structurally designed to exclude First Nations peoples and non-Western communities.
Among First Nations respondents, 81% reported experiencing racism. Comparable rates were documented across African, Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Palestinian, Middle Eastern, Māori, and Pasifika communities.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said the evidence points to racism that is deeply embedded in institutional governance, policy, and curriculum — not merely in face-to-face encounters.
The report puts forward 47 recommendations, spanning a national anti-racism framework, inclusive curricula, safer campus environments, diversified leadership pipelines, and strengthened complaint mechanisms.
Despite years of diversity and inclusion initiatives across the sector, the study found those efforts to be inconsistent, fragmented, and largely reactive. Trust in formal complaint processes remains critically low — only 6% of those who experienced direct racism filed a complaint, and the majority of those who did reported dissatisfaction with the outcome.
The findings arrive against a backdrop of escalating national concern over racial tensions, including the 2025 Bondi Beach attack, which claimed 15 lives and left dozens wounded.
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