Photo credit: ABC News
Findings from the Australian Human Rights Commission’s landmark national Racism@UniStudy highlight that racism is deep.ly embedded across Australian universities and has profound impacts on students and staff.
More than 76,000 students and staff from 42 universities across the country participated in the Study. The Study findings reveal particularly high rates of racism are experienced by students and staff from First Nations, African, Asian, Jewish, Maori, Middle Eastern, Muslim, Palestinian, and Pasifika backgrounds. The findings also show high rates of racism experienced by international students.
Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman said the findings of the Racism@UniStudy are deeply troubling and reveal that universities are falling short of their duty of care to provide safe, inclusive and respectful environments for students and staff.
“The insights and data from this study highlight that racism at university is not confined to isolated incidents or individual behaviour – it is systemic. Racism is pervasive across the sector affecting many groups in serious ways. The Study confirms particularly high rates of racism are experienced by First Nations, Jewish and Palestinian students and staff at Australian universities.
“Racism harms people and communities. It damages people’s identity and self-esteem, their sense of belonging, and their wellbeing and safety. Left unchecked, it leads to violence. The attack on Camp Sovereignty, the antisemitic terror attack in Bondi and the recent alleged attempted bombing targeting Forst Peoples on 26 January in Perth – these are the horrifying outcomes when racism in our society isn’t addressed.”
Source: Australian \human Rights Commission
