One of Australia’s top universities has overturned a decision to dock marks from a student after failing to acknowledge the traditional land rights of Indigenous people. 
The move came after the engineering student filed a formal complaint at Melbourne’s prestigious Monash University on Oct. 7.
A Monash university spokesperson told the Herald Sun newspaper that the “Acknowledgement of Country” was meant to demonstrate that students can meet the “standard of professionalism required of an engineer in Australia.”
Yet the university also said it respected the right of students to “respectfully and appropriately decline to provide an Acknowledgement of Country if they believe it conflicts with their right to free speech or academic freedom.” …