UTS failed Jewish students over Palestine protest complaints, ombudsman finds
The ombudsman found UTS failed to follow complaints policy after a pro-Palestine protest.
A pro-Palestine rally at UTS in March 2025 included a speaker who told a counter-protester that Jews "should feel uncomfortable." Some Jewish students filed complaints.
Some received no reply. Other Jewish students received generic responses that did not address their concerns.
An ombudsman report said this on Tuesday. UTS hired an outside review to fix the harm.
But the review had bias and wrong information, the ombudsman found. The review wrongly blamed the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) for failing to follow university event rules.
An unauthorised student protest was the real problem. The university then published this flawed recommendation in public.
AUJS did not get a chance to respond. This unfairly hurt the group's reputation.
Education Minister Jason Clare said UTS "let Jewish students down." The ombudsman said the university did not do its job.
It failed to check the review and find the factual errors before publishing.
- March 2025
- Pro-Palestine protest
- Jews should feel uncomfortable
- Speaker's remark
- April 2025 AUJS event
- Unauthorised protest
- National Student Ombudsman
- Reporter
Why it mattersUniversities must respond fairly to complaints of discrimination. They must handle reviews with care. Publishing biased findings harms student groups and institutions, especially when the accused cannot reply and defend themselves.
AustraliaThe finding underscores growing pressure on Australian universities to handle campus disputes over the Middle East conflict with fairness and care for all students.
✓ Claims checked against the source. checked 3 h ago
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