Universities will be graded on how well they “deal with” 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.
The antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, devised the report card system as part of a wide-ranging plan handed down to the federal government last July to combat antisemitism, which also proposed withholding government funding from universities that “facilitate, enable or fail to act against antisemitism”.
Segal in November appointed 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.
In the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack, the federal government fast-tracked its response to her plan, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, telling ABC radio late last year that his government was “working with the envoy” to produce the report card on universities.
The report card criteria, sent to universities and seen by Guardian Australia, outlines four “priority areas” to be assessed on a grading of A to D.
The first focuses on university policies, requiring that they “effectively address access to campus grounds, regulates outdoor protests, encampments and display of flags, imagery and promotional materials”.
Universities will also be assessed on whether they “facilitate appropriate, rapid and effective response to all protests, encampments and display of flags, imagery and promotional materials within university campuses and buildings”.
Complaints processes, antisemitism training and the adoption of a definition of antisemitism will also be key areas of assessment.
The government noted in its response to Segal’s report that it was “strengthening the powers and penalties” 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.
But Australia’s top universities and the staff union have warned the report card could prove to be a “blunt instrument”.
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The chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8), Vicki Thomson, questioned how any move to withdraw funding would lead to universities doing better.
“It would only reduce funding in the very areas we are focused on, which is student and staff safety, and addressing the scourge of antisemitism,” she said.
“It’s a blunt instrument to a much more complex problem.
“We 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’ve recognised that.”
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.
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.
In 2023, he described the Go8 in The Australian as “elitist”, “self-interested” and “greedy” institutions that have “dissed Western civilisation, minimised antisemitism and genuflected to Trotskyist student unions”.
The president of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), Dr Alison Barnes, said she had “grave concerns” about Craven’s capacity to conduct a balanced and independent inquiry.
After the Bondi shooting, Craven said that universities had been a “major factor in making antisemitism respectful” and referred to campus protesters as “mutant radical groups”.
“We need an independent expert to give us a sober analysis, not a partisan commentator with a track record of pitting universities against each other,” Barnes said.
But the Australasian Union of Jewish Students’ advocacy and public relations manager, Liat Granot, said the situation on many campuses was “unsustainable” for Jewish students.
“Addressing antisemitism and upholding free inquiry are not competing goals, universities must be able to do both,” she said.
The head of legal at the Executive Council for Australian Jewry (ECAJ), Simone Abel, backed the report card system and sanctions as a “last resort”.
“Antisemitism has become entrenched and systemic in certain parts of institutions within the tertiary education sector,” she said.
The Greens deputy leader and spokesperson for higher education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, said Labor’s adoption of the envoy’s plan was the latest in a “long line of draconian, anti-protest crackdowns and is designed to have a chilling effect on academic freedom and student activism”.
“To be clear, these proposals would make Trump blush,” she said. “They won’t make anyone safer and only serve to tarnish our once great education sector.”
In addition to the report card, the federal government has announced a 12-month antisemitism taskforce, chaired by former University of NSW chancellor David Gonski, to implement Segal’s plan and advise education ministers on further reforms to address antisemitism, including emboldening the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa).
At its latest meeting on Tuesday, Teqsa confirmed it was writing to all vice-chancellors before O-Week encouraging stronger responses to antisemitism.
The chief executive officer of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, said Australia’s universities were “working cooperatively on the recommendation to develop report cards”.
Craven, Segal and the education minister, Jason Clare, were approached for comment.
