Sydney Uni fails plan to tighten ‘bogus’ Indigenous guidelines

One of Australia’s leading institutions has not implemented a 2022 proposal to prohibit staff and students from self-identifying as Indigenous.

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The University of Sydney is allowing people to self-identify as Indigenous with a statutory declaration, despite planning to crack down on the practice two years ago.

The leading institution, who benefit from millions of dollars in federal funding for Indigenous students, have failed to implement a policy which would have strengthened the Commonwealth’s Indigenous three-part test.

In October 2022, the university stated its intention to require staff and students to provide documentation from a local Aboriginal Land Council or First Nations’ community organisation, confirming their ancestry had been officially verified.

However, plans were scrapped after complaints the plan was unfair and even racist.

In a statement, the university confirmed it had “paused work on the policy review” following “feedback from our staff and students … about the stresses they were experiencing in the lead up to the Voice referendum.”

Sydney University has failed to implement stricter standards around students self-identifying as Indigenous, despite promising to do so in 2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

As a result, University of Sydney staff and students are simply able to claim First Nations heritage by signing a statutory declaration.

The Daily Telegraph has been sent a “stat dec” completed by a current student earlier this year.

“I am of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. I identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and I am recognised and accepted as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander” the form reads.

Nathan Moran, the CEO of the Local Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council, described the current process as “bogus.”

He said: “We have tried for many years now to have this addressed. A member of our Land Council raised the alarm on this back in 2015, when we were told there were many students at this university falsely and fraudulently being inducted as Aboriginal.”

Nathan Moran- CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council – said he had been warning Sydney University about Aboriginal fraud for years. Picture by Damian Shaw

“The law dictates what the requirements are to be Aboriginal. A statutory declaration process requires no qualification or checking” Mr Moran declared.

According to the University of Sydney’s website, there are more than 70 scholarships available for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, worth up to $60,000 per year.

The university’s “One Sydney, Many People” vision has set a goal of being the nation’s “leading university for Indigenous staff and students.”

According to its annual report, the university employs 110 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander staff.

The federal government’s “Indigenous Student Success Program” reveals Australian universities are given “funding based on enrolments, unit success rates and course completions of First Nations students.” This year, the University of Sydney qualified for $2.3 million under that criteria, for 339 enrolments and 105 course completions.

Mr Moran told this masthead: “when people are allowed to self-identify … they can easily access funds, programs and initiatives that are meant to be for genuine Aboriginal people.”

A spokesperson for the University of Sydney said they had “resumed work to finalise the revised policy” and “the safety and wellbeing” of its Indigenous students “remains our primary concern.”

Australia’s First Nations’ population increased by 25% between 2016 and 2021, with the Census allowing people to simply tick a box to state their heritage.

Originally published as Sydney Uni fails plan to tighten ‘bogus’ Indigenous guidelines