Australian universities have rejected claims they have banned the use of gender-specific language following comments made by federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham they were dictating "nanny state stuff".
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Mr Birmingham slammed tertiary education institutions who have issued style guides to use gender-neutral language, in a report by NewsCorp saying they had placed a ban on words such as mankind, man-made, spokesman and manpower.
Also included among the examples was the use of pronouns such as "he" for a generic person and "she" for a car or ship.
Some students have complained that they have lost marks for using what are grammatically correct terms, News Corp reports.
Mr Birmingham said: "This just reinforces the stereotype of academic elites in ivory towers judging everyday Australians.
"Our universities should be better than this rubbish.''
But a number of universities have rejected the claims, saying they have only issued "guides" and not bans.
A spokeswoman from The University of Sydney said they have not banned the use of masculine pronouns.
"In cases where a person's gender is not known, the university encourages students to use either both the feminine and masculine pronouns - she or he, s/he - or to use they," the spokeswoman said.
Australian Associated Press
