Australian university to study motivations behind racial attacks

In the wake of a spate of assaults on Indian students here, an Australian university on Friday commissioned an over USD 16,000 fund to study the motivations behind attacks against international students. Victoria University on Friday announced a USD 16,000 grant for a two-month long study into attacks on international students in Down Under and recommend strategies to prevent them.
   
"There is an urgent need to establish the motivations behind these attacks so that the police, the government and the education providers can respond appropriately," said Linda Rosenman deputy vice chancellor, Research and Region, Victoria University. The project will be conducted by the Institute for Community Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives(ICEPA), Victoria University.
    
"The main components of the project would include survey of students involved in attacks and comparative studies of students from India and China", said Hurriyet Babacan, director ICEPA. "The question of motivation for the upsurge in attacks particularly those from India has centered on opportunities versus race hatred", she said.  "While we have no reliable data, not least because so many of these attacks are unreported, once we have some authoritative evidence we can recommend appropriate responses," Babacan said.
     
A team of five leading investigators have been selected and expect to deliver their report to the university by early August, she added. An Indian student in Australia was attacked robbed in Gold Coast on Thursday taking to 17 the number of such incidents within a month.