Universities will be graded on how well they \u201cdeal with\u201d protests, encampments and the display of flags as part of a controversial antisemitism report card system adopted by the Albanese government after the Bondi terror attack, according to documents seen by Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n
The antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, devised the report card system as part of a wide-ranging plan<\/a> handed down to the federal government last July to combat antisemitism, which also proposed withholding government funding from universities that \u201cfacilitate, enable or fail to act against antisemitism\u201d.<\/p>\n Segal in November appointed<\/a> the constitutional lawyer Greg Craven, who is a former vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University and regular columnist with The Australian, to lead the report card initiative.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack<\/a>, the federal government fast-tracked<\/a> its response to her plan<\/a>, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, telling ABC radio late last year that his government was \u201cworking with the envoy\u201d to produce the report card on universities.<\/p>\n The report card criteria, sent to universities and seen by Guardian Australia, outlines four \u201cpriority areas\u201d to be assessed on a grading of A to D.<\/p>\n The first focuses on university policies, requiring that they \u201ceffectively address access to campus grounds, regulates outdoor protests, encampments and display of flags, imagery and promotional materials\u201d.<\/p>\n Universities will also be assessed on whether they \u201cfacilitate appropriate, rapid and effective response to all protests, encampments and display of flags, imagery and promotional materials within university campuses and buildings\u201d.<\/p>\n Complaints processes, antisemitism training and the adoption of a definition of antisemitism will also be key areas of assessment.<\/p>\n The government noted in its response to Segal\u2019s report that it was \u201cstrengthening the powers and penalties\u201d of the university regulator but did not directly confirm whether universities would be financially penalised for failing to act on antisemitism or the findings of the report card.<\/p>\n But Australia\u2019s top universities and the staff union have warned the report card could prove to be a \u201cblunt instrument\u201d.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n The chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8), Vicki Thomson, questioned how any move to withdraw funding would lead to universities doing better.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would only reduce funding in the very areas we are focused on, which is student and staff safety, and addressing the scourge of antisemitism,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a blunt instrument to a much more complex problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all working really genuinely [to address antisemitism], we can all look in the rear view mirror at what could have been done better and we\u2019ve recognised that.\u201d<\/p>\n A string of universities, including the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne, came under fire from some Jewish groups for allowing pro-Palestine encampments to run for several weeks, prompting them to enact new restrictions on protests.<\/p>\n Go8 universities will be the first to be assessed by Craven, who has strongly critiqued them in the past. The first tranche is expected by May.<\/p>\n In 2023, he described the Go8 in The Australian as \u201celitist\u201d, \u201cself-interested\u201d<\/a> and \u201cgreedy\u201d institutions that have \u201cdissed Western civilisation<\/a>, minimised antisemitism and genuflected to Trotskyist student unions\u201d.<\/p>\n The president of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), Dr Alison Barnes, said she had \u201cgrave concerns\u201d about Craven\u2019s capacity to conduct a balanced and independent inquiry.<\/p>\n After the Bondi shooting, Craven said that universities had been a \u201cmajor factor in making antisemitism respectful\u201d and referred to campus protesters as \u201cmutant radical groups\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need an independent expert to give us a sober analysis, not a partisan commentator with a track record of pitting universities against each other,\u201d Barnes said.<\/p>\n But the Australasian Union of Jewish Students\u2019 advocacy and public relations manager, Liat Granot, said the situation on many campuses was \u201cunsustainable\u201d for Jewish students.<\/p>\n \u201cAddressing antisemitism and upholding free inquiry are not competing goals, universities must be able to do both,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The head of legal at the Executive Council for Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Simone Abel, backed the report card system and sanctions as a \u201clast resort\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAntisemitism has become entrenched and systemic in certain parts of institutions within the tertiary education sector,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, said Labor\u2019s adoption of the envoy\u2019s plan was the latest in a \u201clong line of draconian, anti-protest crackdowns<\/a> and is designed to have a chilling effect on academic freedom and student activism\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be clear, these proposals would make Trump blush,\u201d she said. \u201cThey won\u2019t make anyone safer and only serve to tarnish our once great education sector.\u201d<\/p>\n