Anti-Racism Action Plan 2024-2027
The Anti-Racism Action Plan specifies the actions the University will take to address the history of racism in our institution, its legacies and the issue of contemporary racism impacting students and staff of diverse Indigeneity, ethnicity, nationality and/or faith.
Anti-racism was first identified as a priority for the University in 2021 with the launch of the University’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030, and this was reinforced in our Anti-Racism Commitment, published in 2023. This Anti-Racism Action Plan also supports the work outlined in our current Indigenous strategy, Murmuk Djerring, which builds on the University’s Reconciliation Action Plans that began in 2011.
The Anti-Racism Action Plan is designed to build capacity and systems to acknowledge, understand, prevent, and respond effectively to racism at the University of Melbourne.
The Plan consists of four pillars which directly respond to feedback from students and staff at the University:
- Acknowledging racism: there is a culture of silence around racism, so we need to begin by acknowledging that racism exists and is a problem for us
- Understanding racism: there is no shared understanding of racism, what it is and what it isn’t. Without this understanding, we cannot set behavioural expectations or consequences for our community
- Racism prevention: to prevent racism, we must embrace and value the benefits that diversity brings to our institution, and do so with great respect
- Racism response: our response to racism needs to be visible, transparent and fair. This will build confidence in students and staff to disclose and report racism so that it can be addressed.
The action plan is informed by the lived experience of our students and staff, subject matter experts within the University, and leading practice benchmarks. Three reports on Racism at the University of Melbourne (prepared by University of Melbourne Student Union), together with a range of other student and staff data have been critical inputs into the development of this Action Plan.
Understanding the lived experience of students and staff was central to the development of the Action Plan and will be centered in its implementation, evaluation and reporting. To this end, the University will continue to work in partnership with students, staff and subject matter experts to deliver and assess the impact of the Action Plan.
Download the action plan
Resources
If you have experienced or witnessed racism at the University, a range of support is available to students and staff. These include:
Murrup Barak: Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students