Harmony week won’t fix racism IN universities and workplaces
By Afeeya Akhand, Head of Research and Policy, CiC
As Australia marks Harmony Week, the Australian Human Rights Commission’s recently-released Respect @ Uni report offers a timely reminder that our national conversation about diversity is overdue. The report’s findings are confronting, but offer valuable insights into how Australia can combat racism in the university sector as well as professional workplaces through systemic cultural change.
Based on responses from more than 76,000 students and staff, the Respect @ Uni report is the first study of its kind by examining racism across Australia’s tertiary sector. The report reveals the widespread nature of discrimination on campuses, with 70% of respondents reporting experiences of indirect racism. The recorded patterns of discrimination are even more stark when analysing the experience of specific racial and ethnic groups: 81% of First Nations respondents reported racism, along with 90% of Palestinian respondents, 89% of Jewish respondents and 81% of Middle Eastern respondents.
Although universities are often celebrated as safe spaces for progressive thinking, the report’s results instead highlight the way in which students and staff from minority backgrounds are often scapegoated or subject to heightened scrutiny in times of social and political tension. The report shows that during and after the Voice Referendum in 2023, many First Peoples experienced racism and during the Israel-Hamas war, many Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian, Muslim and Middle Eastern respondents also suffered similar treatment.
Furthermore, the survey highlights that racist attitudes are not necessarily confined to classrooms. With 300,000 students graduating from Australian universities every year, these institutions subsequently shape the thinking of the next generation of professionals. When graduates enter into and progress in the workplace, preconceived notions about race can often be perpetuated in such environments. The experience of academic and professional staff in the university sector itself acutely illustrates this problem, with over half of staff respondents reporting that university leadership does not reflect the diversity of the broader university population.
The underrepresentation of staff of colour is evident across a range of other professional sectors in Australia, especially at the leadership level. In ASX300 companies, 92% of board positions were held by Anglo-Celtic Australians in 2025. In the Australian Public Service, analysis of 20 years of longitudinal data demonstrated that non-Anglo Australians were more likely to be promoted than Australians from non-Anglo backgrounds, especially at senior levels.
To combat systemic racism, the Respect @ Uni report makes a range of recommendations. Not only are these recommendations relevant to universities, but they offer a blueprint for improving equity across Australian workplaces broadly. For example, the report emphasises the importance of strengthening complaints mechanisms and improving accountability for racism, while ensuring that organisational leadership better reflects the diversity of Australian society.
In addition, combatting racism requires adopting a whole-of-society lens including through implementing the findings of the National Anti-Racism Framework. The Federal government also needs to play a more salient role in advancing conversations about race. Although the work of the ongoing Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion is a strong starting point, anti-racism work requires ongoing work. For one, replacing Harmony Week with its original name, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD), would be a powerful signal about Australia’s top-down approach to racism. Rather than surface-level initiatives focused on multicultural food and festivities, this time of year could be better leveraged by workplaces to understand and reflect on the experiences of people of colour and allies through listening circles, panel discussions and satisfaction surveys.
Of course, one day a year is not enough when it comes to combatting discrimination, whether that be in the university sector or Australian workplaces more broadly. The role of civil society organisations, like Careers in Colour, in bringing together professionals of colour through initiatives such as the Alliance is key as well. By providing a safe gathering space outside of formal workplace structures, Careers in Colour empowers people of colour, allies and senior leaders to effect positive change within their own respective workplaces.
Australia has much to be proud of when it comes to multiculturalism, with our diversity being one of our greatest strengths. But the Respect @ Uni report makes it clear that combatting racism requires cultural change including in how Australian society thinks about race. In addition to the suite of recommendations made in the report, policy mechanisms such as marking IDERD on an annual basis would send a clear message about the value of Australian multiculturalism.
