‘Melissa’ or ‘Rahul’: Which prospective ‘PhD student’ did Australian academics reply to?

Universities are supposed to be places where all students can learn, free from discrimination.

A key part of this ideal is academics welcoming all students to study and research, regardless of their racial background.

But as our new research shows, Australian academics responded differently to potential PhD students, depending on whether they were called “Melissa” or “Rahul”.

Racism on campus

Many overseas and Australian studies have shown racism is both a historical and ongoing problem for universities.

A 2020 Australian study showed universities tend to be run by older, white men. A 2021 UK study showed academics from different cultural backgrounds face racism at work.

But there has been less specific attention paid to those trying to become academics.

The main way people start an academic career is via a doctoral degree. In the Australian system, before a student is accepted they usually require an established academic to agree to supervise them. So a student’s initial communication with a potential supervisor is very important.

How we set up our research

To investigate whether racism is playing a role at the entrance point to PhD study, in 2017 we sent about 7,000 emails from fictitious students to academics based at the main campuses of Australia’s Group of Eight universities (billed as Australia’s top research universities).

These are the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Adelaide, University of New South Wales, University of...

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