“Racism” Towards PhD Students? Whoever Would Have Thought That! By James Reed
The woke are now worried that Australian research has shown that international students who have non-European names are less likely to receive responses to their PhD proposals, that those ethnics who use a European name. And this is "racism," big time, for the woke at least.Well, I think just suck it up or do a PhD in your own country. There is nothing much that could be done about it anyway. And be sure the same, and worse, discrimination exists for European people applying out countries like communist China and India.
I am a bit sick of this racial whinging. Stop having international students, and thus stop the "racism."
"Rohini Balram sent her PhD research proposal to more than 20 universities and received only one positive reply.
Most of the emails were ignored altogether said Dr Balram, who now holds a doctorate from Western Sydney University.
Even when this "challenging journey" to find a supervisor came to an end, she was asked to do an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) test.
Most international students are required to undertake IELTS or other exams to prove English language proficiency before commencing study at Australian universities.
But Dr Balram is an Australian citizen and has lived in Australia since 2010.
What's more, her education in Fiji had been conducted in English since preschool.
"I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I come from Fiji and I've got a very Indian name," she said.
After she sent a complaint email to the enrolment team, the requirement was waived, Dr Balram said.
A spokesperson for Western Sydney University said it was "proud to have one of the most socially and culturally diverse student communities in the country".
They said English language proficiency was required for all students at Western Sydney University "regardless of cultural background", and that being born in Australia or an English speaking country did not "automatically demonstrate" proficiency in English.
Backlash against university racism studyDr Balram's experience resonates with the findings of a recent study which found senior academics at Australia's top universities were less likely to respond to emails if sent from people with a non-white ethnic background.
Researchers emailed about 7,000 academics from the elite Group of Eight universities with identical content: a prospective PhD student seeking to have a short meeting with the academic to discuss the potential of doctoral supervision.
The only difference was the implied racial backgrounds of the eight names used.
Emails from names associated with the non-white racial groups such as "Grace Chen Jinyan" or "Rahul Kumar" received fewer responses as compared to senders with a white-European name such as "Melissa Smith".
The ethnic name groups were less likely to receive follow up questions or invitations to meet as compared to the white name group.
"Melissa Smith" was 12 per cent more likely to receive a response than "Rahul Kumar".
"Omar al-Haddad" was 9 per cent less likely to receive a response than "Melissa Smith", while "Grace Chen Jinyan" was 6 per cent less likely.
One of the authors of the study, Megan MacKenzie from Simon Fraser University in Canada, said this discrepancy was caused by the racial bias of academics.
"There's nothing that can explain those results other than bias," she said.
"Some professors may be busy or unable to meet, that's absolutely acceptable ... but it shouldn't be that the professors who happen to get the message from 'Rahul' just happened to be busier compared to the professors who received an email from 'Melissa'."
Some 68 per cent of the professors contacted in the study were white men.
It found that junior academics, who had less institutional power in terms of recruitment, showed less racial bias compared to senior academics.
Professor MacKenzie said backlash followed "minutes" after the researchers debriefed academics that they had been part of a research study.
The researchers had planned to allow one week for academics to respond but after one university IT department detected several staff had received the same email, the experiment was ended after 24 hours.
The University of Sydney, the researchers' home institution at the time, received more than 500 inquiries about the study — and the majority were complaints.
"Many complaints were focused on the use of deception in the study, which is an authorised and very accepted method of studying bias," Professor MacKenzie said.
A spokesperson for the University of Sydney confirmed to the ABC that a high volume of complaints had been received about the study, which was found to have been conducted properly.
"We established that the research underwent rigorous ethics review and was conducted in compliance with the approved ethics protocol … with no breaches found," they said.
Professor MacKenzie was still a junior scholar when the research was conducted and said her experiences of the backlash differed from her co-author Benjamin Smith, who was a full professor.
"I received phone calls telling me that it is a bad idea to do this, or that there could be negative consequences for my career.
"While we both received concerned and upset emails, he did not receive the same kind of personal threats," she said.
"What I've learnt from the backlash is that it's easy for us to talk about racism in general terms, but people don't like having the mirror turned on themselves."
The 'subtle' racism in academiaLang, a Chinese PhD candidate studying at a Melbourne university who asked to use a pseudonym, said differential treatment based on one's racial background could often be felt but was difficult to prove.
"It's really hard to tell whether it is racism or not — but you feel something is wrong," he said.
"Some of my Chinese peers' supervisors will give Caucasian students research assistant opportunities straight away, while they would need to ask for it multiple times."
Lang also said that while around 50 per cent of his cohort are international students, most of those invited by the department to present their research had been Caucasian.
Dr Balram said she also observed that people from Caucasian backgrounds tended to get more research assistant work.
"From my experience in academia, the Chinese and Indian accents are looked down upon, regardless of the fluency," she said.
"When I was presenting at international conferences as a PhD student, I've been told a lot of times that 'For an Indian, you speak English well' — that was supposed to be a compliment.
"Of course, people don't say it out loud. No one will say 'your accent is not nice so you are not hired', but you can feel [the bias]."
Dr Balram said she had found "refuge" in her department at Western Sydney University, where most academics were from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Still, Professor MacKenzie's research found there was no significant association between the cultural diversity at a university and the level of exhibited racial bias.
For Andrew Zhu, a PhD candidate at University of Melbourne's law school, assumption of his research interests based on his ethnic background was another form of implicit racism.
"Before I decided on my research topic, someone advised that I should select topics related to Chinese law," he said.
"The person who advised me is well intentioned, suggesting that it's hard for a non-white researcher to gain recognition in a field that's dominated by Caucasian researchers."
Earlier this year, a student-led survey of 800 University of Melbourne students found more than two-thirds had experienced casual racism.
A spokesperson for the University of Melbourne said at the time its first anti-racism action plan was underway which was being done in consultation with the university community and "informed by the lived experience of our students and staff".
Survey reveals alleged racism in schools | ABC News
'My name is my identity'Adopting an English name or anglicising one's ethnic name is common among migrants to Australia.
"I've used an Anglo name before, mainly because people can't pronounce my Chinese name correctly," said Lang, the PhD candidate.
"But now I prefer to use my Chinese name as it is connected to my cultural identity."
Dr Balram said she also refused to anglicise her name.
"No one can call me Ro or Rose ... my name is my identity, it's who I am — Rohini means 'stars' in Hindi," she said.
"Just say my name, that is my fight against racism."
Mr Zhu, the Melbourne law PhD candidate, said discrimination was "probably an ugly reality of academia".
"But I want to challenge it," he said.
Professor MacKenzie said universities should truly "listen to students who are affected by racism".
"We need a firm reality check with universities that maybe their equity and diversity efforts are not as successful as they think," she said.
"We need to get better at just facing those difficult conversations in the university."
Indeed, close down the universities to stop dreaded "racism" on universities; no universities, no "racism"!
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