"I thought it was a mistake."

The University of Sydney has announced a $27,000 scholarship for veterinary science students that will give “preference” to male applicants.

The Prof. Marsh Edwards AO Scholarship is open to first year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students and will be awarded for the first time this year. It’s named after Professor Marshall Edward, a country vet who worked in rural Western Australia, and was established by his wife, Marcia.

The Marsh Edwards scholarship was advertised to current vet student at the university, along with other scholarship opportunities, who picked up on an unusual clause that stated that male applicants would be given preferential treatment.

One vet student told Junkee that they were “dumbfounded” when they saw the scholarship advertisement. “I was really surprised and I thought it was a mistake,” they said. “There’s no such thing as reverse sexism. Men don’t face the social, political and structural inequalities that we do on a daily basis.”

While most vet students are women, the student pointed out to Junkee that there wasn’t any evidence this was due to particular structural or financial barriers that prohibited men and warranted a specific scholarship.

“Graduating female veterinarians are actually paid up to $2,500 a year less than men,” they said.

The University of Sydney Women’s Collective has released a statement “calling on the University to remove ‘male’ from the eligibility requirements and send a clear message to all students that sexism and discrimination on campus is unacceptable”.

Imogen Grant, one of the university’s Women’s Officers, told Junkee that it was “pretty exceptional that [the scholarship] preferences male applicants who aren’t members of a structurally oppressed group.”

According to Grant, a staff member in the university’s scholarships department justified the scholarship by arguing “there are some scholarships that we have which are only acceptable by Aboriginal students. So technically these discriminate themselves. But based on the charitable status of the university we are allowed to discriminate.”

Grant responded saying, “it is completely inappropriate to draw equivalence between scholarships for Aboriginal students and male students”. “Scholarships exist to alleviate structural barriers to receiving an education, and preferencing male applicants reinforces the gender divide.

“Just because something resides within an exemption within the law, does not mean that is how the law should be implemented. It is no excuse for the University to be complacent about discrimination.”

Grant also told Junkee there was a “case to be made” for staff at the university to receive cultural sensitivity training, due to the comparison between Aboriginal students and male students.

Junkee has contacted the University of Sydney for comment.

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Feature image via Angela Thomas/Flickr