One of Australia’s top universities has been told to make multiple apologies over its handling of complaints made when the Australasian Union of Jewish Students invited Israeli Defense Forces members onto campus.
A report from the National Student Ombudsman, released on Tuesday and titled simply “Procedurally unfair”, makes seven recommendations against the University of Technology Sydney.
These recommendations include an apology to students who complained about a pro-Palestine event, and an apology to the Jewish student organisation for the way they were incorrectly referred to in an external review.
The further recommendations are for reviews into the campus protest policy, the events policy, external review policies, and the reissuing of a new external review report correcting findings which were “wrongly critical” of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students.
The ombudsman has ruled the university “alienated Jewish students”.
In responses included within the ombudsman’s report, the university accepts six of the seven recommendations.
A UTS spokesperson said in 13 months since the external review report was delivered, the university had “taken steps” to address the reviewers recommendations, did not intend to take any further action, and the original report had been pulled from the university website.
The issues stem from events beginning in March 2025, at UTS’s city campus.
The Jewish student group had put in an application to have an “open table discussion” meeting about the impacts of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks. Proposed guest speakers included Israeli Defense Forces reservists.
Two weeks later, a National Day of Action for Palestine ‘Stop the Genocide’ event was held. Afterwards Jewish students who were counter-protesting complained they had been singled out based on their identity, which “placed them at risk of physical harm”.
The university “quickly”, the ombudsman said, commissioned an external review to look at its protest oversight and approval processes.
Three student societies wrote to the university, saying having Israeli Defense Forces members on campus risked “inciting violence”, the wellbeing of Palestinian students in particular was at risk, and military and weapons industry representatives on campus had sparked protests in the past.
The letter included personal statements from a Gazan UTS student who said there was no way to “rule out the possibility that one or more of (the IDF speakers) are directly responsible for the death of a student’s family member or loved one’,” the report says.
The Jewish student-organised meeting went ahead, and included a virtual reality element to “enhance the audience’s understanding of the experiences of survivors from the October 7, 2023 attacks”.
An unsanctioned counter protest of about 20-30 counter protesters make their presence known “at a different location on campus”.
When the external review report came back, it incorrectly said the Australasian Union of Jewish Students had not followed the event application rules. But the 20-30 person counter protest to the Jewish student meeting was not examined in the same way.
The Jewish student group felt this finding unfairly damaged their reputation, and showed the university held a bias in applying its policies.
Members of the Jewish student organisation felt the finding amplified their perceived experiences of anti-Semitism.
“Once AUJS had been publicly identified in connection with the University’s findings, the issue took on a life of its own,” one student told the ombudsman.
“The University’s conclusions were amplified through student media and wider discussion, leaving AUJS with little opportunity to correct the record or influence how those findings were interpreted or repeated.”
Ultimately, the ombudsman finds UTS “alienated” Jewish students.
“The University had a responsibility to oversee the review and identify factual inconsistencies prior to publishing the review’s outcomes. We found that it failed to do so, and in the process further alienated Jewish students.”