Monash University has reported to "specialist agencies" the hacking of its website home page, which on Saturday displayed the words "Hacked by yaser007" in red above a picture of the Iranian flag within the outline of a map of the country.

In an emailed statement, Monash University chief information officer, Mr Ian Tebbett, said the site "was subject to an external hacker breach on Saturday" but that "the situation was quickly identified and dealt with".

A screengrab taken at 12.52pm provided by a Monash Univeristy student.

He said no university data had been compromised and that the effects were "limited to the publishing of non-Monash material on the externally-facing website".

It appeared, Mr Tebbett said, that neither Monash, nor the wider Australian higher education community, were a "specific target of the attack".