Academics responded more positively to emails from prospective students named “Melissa” compared to “Rahul”.
When fake emails landed almost simultaneously in thousands of academics’ inboxes at some of Australia’s top universities, they did not immediately appear out of the ordinary.
The research found prospective students with non-white names were both less likely to receive any response to the email and also more likely to receive a decline response. The emails in the study, sent to about 7000 academics at the Group of Eight institutions, were written in clear, concise, grammatical English. They indicated the student had completed study in Australia and were sent from a Sydney University email address.
One of the researchers, Professor Megan MacKenzie, now at Simon Fraser University in Canada, said she didn’t anticipate the backlash, which was highly stressful for the then-junior academic. MacKenzie said universities needed to collect and publish better data on staff and student diversity, and explore how to address inequalities.
“That is what underscores our profile, not a research project based on deceptive emails that looked at response rates and then somehow extrapolated that our academics are racist,” she said.
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