Rainer,
Does your leftist belief system allow for the possibility that in modern liberal societies, many of the less than equivalent outcomes we see may have more to do with cultural & or individual inadequacies,and less to do with inflexible class structures or systematic discrimination?
Equivalency of input –does not guarantee - equivalency of outcome

Horus, name one social or economic condition that is not systemic?

Are you suggesting societal attitudes to minority groups does not have an impact on the thier relative quality of life?

And who are you talking about? Or are these mysterious people just the usual scapegoats that are pathologically labelled to suite neocon theories?

Steve Madden, works on the premise that Australian tertiary institutions are completely different from their American counterparts so a statistical analysis of them can not shed any light on the situation here. As a conservative student at the top university in the country I assure you that it is the case in Australia as I have found my views too often being the subject of ridicule merely because I support Howard government policy.

In 2005 in a first year subject known as Global Politics it was quickly established that I was the only conservative in the tutorial and anything I said was greeted with scoffs of disbelief and often laughter. I once heard the tutor say to some of the more left leaning students in the class that she had “one like him [which she clarified to mean a Liberal] in every class” and often my views were treated with open disdain by this woman who was supposed to neutrally run discussions in the class
In the same subject I wrote an essay that poked holes in the communitarian world view, arguing for globalization and a less insular model. I was given an extremely low mark. I then tested the bias by calling George W. Bush dangerous and arrogant in my next essay and received a bump in marks of over 30 points.
In my short time at the university, I have also had tutors tell me that America is the f'ing global hegemony and must be stopped, and had a History lecturer (who is also Deputy Vice-Chancellor) talk about Iraq and Voluntary Student Unionism. It was French Revolution history so those topics are completely irrelevant.

Mr. D'Souza raises many valid points in his piece and as someone who experiences the sorts of bias he is talking about regularly I am glad someone is willing to stand up to the left-wing intelligentsia that are happy to take my money and then tell me everything I believe is wrong.

Melbuinartsstudent.

I said if there are no statistics then the opposite may be true.(not that the opposite is true) I think you may have an arguement about Melbourne Uni being the top Uni in the country.

Did you ever consider you wrote a crap essay? University is there to challenge your views and to expand your knowledge.

When I went to uni 33 years ago I challenged my tutors and thier ideas, I suggest you do the same. Of course I only went to ANU a hotbed of socialism, not the Uni of Sir Robert Menzies.

I wonder how many people commenting here is actually at an Australian University, and if they have any idea what it is like to be a conservative student on campus.

Sure, if you are a Greens/ALP voter who went to university in the 1970s, you might not have noticed a whole lot of bias. Even left-leaning students today might not think that academics had strong persuasions one way or the other.

But try to be the lone right-winger in a tute dominated by left-leaning students and an animal liberationist, former communist or anti-American for tutor and then you can talk about academic bias.

When the lecture on Ronald Reagan in your American Studies subject dismisses him as a brain-dead lightweight, when your Ideologies and Movements lecturer spends one lecture on Conservatism and four on the different variations of feminism, and your tutor describes Peter Singer as 'mainstream' - then you can talk about academic bias.

In my time at University I have never had a tutor or lecturer who wasn't at least an ALP voter, let alone Greens or Socialist Alliance.

Melbuniartsstudent: I suggest you secretly tape one of these tutorials where you are ridiculed in the way that you claim, and then take one tape to the vice-chancellor, and other tapes to various muck raking media outlets. Then watch the university go into massive damage control. In the least, they'd probably sacrifice the tutor to save some face. She'd either then have to exist in the real world, or suffer the indignity of being associated with an institution such as Latrobe or Deakin. Either way, any serious academic career would be over.

Don't get angry, get even.

Steve Madden: I think it was the Guardian that ranked international universities and the University of Melbourne ranked as Australia's best at number nineteen. I think it came in somewhere in the top five for Arts. Of course, it's only one study.