The University of Canberra has threatened students with possible suspension should they be found guilty of uploading a racist image on social media that caused outrage in the academic community.

Late last week, a digitally altered image of the university's website including "highly offensive" racist language was uploaded to a Facebook page designed for the student community.

The UC Confessions page, which is not affiliated with the University of Canberra, promises users "all posts are and will always be anonymous" and allows students to contribute content through an online survey tool.

According to the university, staff urged Facebook to remove the offensive content from the page but the service refused to take action.

The university also urged the administrators of the Facebook page to remove the racist content but they did not do so until several days later.