The University of Sydney is standing by a new $27,000 vet science scholarship that favours men after students protested that it constitutes unacceptable sexism.
Some vet science students were infuriated when they received notification last week of the Professor Marsh Edwards AO Scholarship, offered to postgraduate veterinary medicine students for the first time in 2017.
The scholarship information says that "preference will be given to applicants who are: from rural or regional areas, male, interested in large animal practice ... [and] an Australian citizen".
The women's officer on the Students' Representative Council at the university, Imogen Grant, said female vet students were "horrified".
A female Doctor of Veterinary Medicine student, who asked not to be named, said: "I was really surprised. I really thought that it was a mistake - some sort of clerical error. Sexism exists in our society but I thought the uni held itself to a higher standard."
Gender balance in vet science as a profession has reversed in the past 20 years from male to female-dominated, but the student said this did not justify the scholarship's terms.
"Female graduates of vet school are still paid less, from day one," she said. "Professor Edwards was a lovely man who did a lot of fabulous work. This is not about hurting his reputation.
"I just think it shows very little thought into the causative agents of under-representation of women in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths]. The barriers that prevent men from entering vet science are not the same barriers that prevent women from entering every single other academic area."
Ms Grant conceded there were women-only and indigenous-only scholarships offered at the university, "but what distinguishes those scholarships is they are in place to procure benefits for people who face structural barriers to receiving an education".
"To have male-only scholarships is to continue male privilege within society," she said.
A spokeswoman for the university said it was "confident" the scholarship complied with discrimination laws.
"The inclusion of males as one of a number of preferences by the donor is to address the current under-representation of males in the student cohort," she said.
"As such, it is consistent with the university's support of actions to address diversity and the under-representation of males or females in certain disciplines or professions."
She said women were still eligible to apply, and that academic excellence would be "prioritised".
"Of this year's graduate entry for the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students, over 90 per cent of the intake is expected to be female. This is a trend seen over the past five years along with an increasing trend away from rural practice."
The federal government's latest Job Outlook data reports that of employed vets, 19 per cent are male (full time) and 3 per cent (part time) compared with females 48 per cent (full time) and 30 per cent (part time).
A 2013 report by the Australian Veterinary Association noted the dramatic gender shift in vet science professionals since the 1980s.
