Uni standards take effect as campus hearings open

New governance standards requiring Australian universities to adopt definitions of racism, including antisemitism, took effect on Monday, even as the sector regulator has yet to finalise guidance on how they will operate in practice.

The changes coincided with the opening of Hearing Block 4 of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which turned its attention to the experiences of Jewish students and academics on campus.

The standards were foreshadowed in December as part of the Albanese government’s package of measures to combat antisemitism, and require universities to implement complaints processes, adopt safety rules for staff and students, and report annually to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).

Education Minister Jason Clare flagged plans to go further, telling Sky News he would introduce legislation in coming months giving the regulator power to fine universities directly, rather than requiring it to pursue penalties through the courts.

“Anyone who doesn’t think there have been some challenges in university governance has been living under a rock,” Clare stated.

The standards were among 47 recommendations contained in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect at Uni report, which found Jewish students and staff experienced racism at rates above 90 per cent because of their religion or ethnicity.

A separate independent assessment by emeritus professor Greg Craven, released in May, found that no Australian university met the requirements of the University Report Card process.

Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal described adopting an antisemitism definition as “absolutely essential” and endorsed Craven’s finding that the failure amounted to a sector-wide systemic problem.

Ahead of this week’s hearings, the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A) lodged a submission warning there is no quick fix for what it called normalised and deeply embedded antisemitism on campuses. 5A CEO Alisa Pincus said, “While equality, inclusion and wellbeing are features of universities’ missions and values, many Jewish staff and students conceal their identities for fear of discrimination, retribution or exclusion.

“Intervention by university leaders is the rare exception, leading to a climate in which hostility, intimidation and the use of antisemitic tropes have been normalised.”

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS), whose members gave evidence during the hearing block, cited data showing 94 per cent of Jewish students have experienced antisemitism on campus.

Its submission argued antisemitism “has shifted in character, from isolated incidents to a normalised feature of campus life”, with universities, student unions and the national student body “either” enabling that shift “or” allowing it to continue.

AUJS found that warnings from students were largely met with no substantive action, that complaints processes failed to recognise conduct framed as political speech, and that during the 2024 encampments no affected university communicated with Jewish students about their safety. Where leadership did act, it noted, “Jewish students experienced a materially different campus.”

AUJS national president Jeremy Suss said universities “were told, repeatedly and in writing, that a culture of exclusion and vilification was becoming ingrained on campus, and the institutions that received those warnings filed them away”. He said universities “chose to treat antisemitism as a controversy to be managed rather than a duty of care they were obliged to meet”.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) head of legal Simone Abel said perpetrators of antisemitic conduct have “faced zero consequences”, pointing to academics who had “participated in Hamas rallies abroad, called for the execution of ‘Zionists’ and displayed slides of Nazi propaganda”.

“Universities have become so enmeshed in their twisted interpretations of academic freedom and freedom of expression that they will not publicly condemn or even dissociate themselves from these overt expressions of racism,” Abel said, adding the Royal Commission’s recommendations must translate into “legal, educational and policy responses”.