How are Australian universities tracking racism on campus? These students stepped in where their university didn't
By Ahmed Yussuf and Claudia Long via ABC News
Posted Mon 25 Mar 2024 at 11:55amMonday 25 Mar 2024 at 11:55am, updated Tue 26 Mar 2024 at 1:24pm
All content maintained from original news source
In short: A student-led report into the experiences of University of Melbourne students has found more than two-thirds of students surveyed have experienced casual racism.
Only five of Australia's 41 universities ask students about their experiences of racism in some form, an ABC analysis has found.
What's next? The University of Melbourne has said it is developing an anti-racism action plan.
A student-led report that surveyed more than 800 people studying at one of Australia's most prestigious universities has found more than two thirds have either experienced or witnessed casual racism.
The survey was started by two University of Melbourne students — Hiba Adam, the former student union president, and Mohamed Omer.
It comes as an ABC analysis suggests just a fraction of Australia's 41 universities are actively asking their students about their experiences with racism.
Ms Adam and Mr Omer's report found most students surveyed said they would report racism on campus, but more than two thirds did not actually know how to go about this.
It also found more than 30 per cent of those surveyed had experienced overt racism at the university.
Source: University of Melbourne Student Union Get the data
One of the respondents said a tutor grabbed their braids in class, while another said they had overheard "jokes" describing Hitler as a good person.
The most recent survey polled 855 students surveyed, compared to two previous surveys that each had fewer than 200 participants.
But Ms Adam said she was frustrated that despite three years of work, the university was yet to address the bulk of their recommendations.
Hiba Adam says not enough has changed on campus despite meetings with university leadership.(ABC News: Ahmed Yussuf)
She said she felt the university had welcomed their findings, but that nothing tangible had come from their meetings.
"We did this work by ourselves. The university did not facilitate any of this," Ms Adam said.
She said she had been left feeling disappointed and isolated. At the end of last year, she left her role as student union president.
Source: University of Melbourne Student Union Get the data
In a statement, a University of Melbourne spokesperson said its first anti-racism action plan was underway.
"[We are in] consultation with our University community and informed by the lived experience of our students and staff," a spokesperson said.
The university said its leadership actions had been informed by the work of the student union survey.
"It remains critical that we continue to listen to and learn from our students and we do so welcoming their insights," the university said.
'They think you're calling them racist'
The results of the student survey came as no surprise to Ahmed Ali, who was just starting to research his honours thesis last year when he began to question the way the University of Melbourne selected its history readings.
Mr Ali was interested in exploring Algerian history through the prism of gender, with a focus on Arabic sources.
However, he said some staff questioned whether focusing on non-European sources for his thesis would meet academic standards.
It prompted Mr Ali to review half of the university's undergraduate history subject guides, which included 1,336 different sources. He found only 146 of the sources were from non-white scholars.
For example, a subject called The History of Violence had more than 100 sources, but only 12 were from non-white academics.
Some reading lists reflected the subject's focus — for example, Witch-Hunting in European Societies cited mostly white academics.
Another subject, Modern Southeast Asia, had two thirds of its sources from non-white scholars.
Ahmed Ali said he was not able to find a PhD supervisor in his department after releasing the review.(ABC News: Ahmed Yussuf)
Mr Ali said he only intended his review — which spanned about 50 pages — to act as a prompt for future analysis and questions about how history was sourced.
When he emailed the review to university staff, he said he received a mixed response.
Some professors in the department replied asking him to help make the reading guide more inclusive.
"Obviously I can't, because at this point I'm only a fourth year — these aren't my expertise," Mr Ali said.
He believed some professors thought he was calling them racist.
Source: University of Melbourne Student Union Get the data
Mr Ali said some responses showed a "fragility" around what he intended as a respectful and open conversation about race and representation in the curriculum.
"When you point out how white their knowledge is, and how white their reading guides are, they think you're calling them racist."
After finishing the review, he said he was then unable to find someone within the history department to be the primary supervisor for his PhD.
The University of Melbourne said Mr Ali received support from his subject coordinator on his review of the history subject guides, and that the review was not a consideration of prospective supervisors when advising on and supporting the pursuit of his PhD.
Mr Ali has since decided to begin his PhD with a primary supervisor within the university's culture and communication school, and a co-supervisor in the history department. Both schools are contained within the university's Faculty of Arts.
What's happening at universities across Australia?
The ABC asked all 41 Australian universities whether they had asked their students about experiences of racism in some way.
Only four responded in the affirmative.
Associate Professor Mario Peucker from Victoria University said that Australian university campuses should be no different to institutions such as schools or workplaces.
"Racism happens everywhere," Dr Peucker, who has researched the impact of racism in communities in Australia," said.
He said there needed to be a shift in the way universities responded to racism when it was reported.
Dr Peucker pointed to recent studies that showed inequalities within academia in places like the United States and the United Kingdom that showed non-white academics were less likely to be cited, and hold positions of power within universities.
"We have to sort of turn that narrative around. The more people report, it's actually a sign that the institution tackles racism," he said.
He said there needed to be an appetite to tackle both interpersonal and structural racism at universities.
"It requires leadership. It requires a deep willingness to learn and to change. But it also requires a change of organisational institutions and policies," he said.
"Whether it's recruitment, whether it's inclusion policies, whether it's policies that encourage people to speak out and take it seriously."
Students want to be invited to the table
Ms Adam described the time she spent working on the survey as almost equivalent to an undergraduate degree.
Despite the university embarking on its action plan, with the involvement of students, Ms Adam said she did not feel included in the discussions around racism on campus.
"It was an underwhelming response for us because we just expected to be further along than where we were," she said.
However, Ms Adam said she hoped her work would give students a better chance of being heard.
"There's many, many more of us at the University of Melbourne and other universities who really want to make a difference on our campuses," Ms Adam said.
"We've already done half of the work, so just invite us to the table, and keep us in the loop. That's all all we want."