Lecturer apologises for suggesting Indonesian students should leave his class after Bali Nine executions

A Melbourne university lecturer who has written about stereotyping and discrimination has apologised for questioning whether Indonesian students should be allowed to attend his class in the wake of the execution of the Bali Nine ringleaders.

Swinburne University's Dr Julian Oldmeadow made the comments in a psychology class yesterday, Melbourne radio station 3AW reports.

One of Dr Oldmeadow's students, only identified as Jennifer, said the remarks made her feel "really shocked, quite disgusted" and "really uncomfortable".

"He went on to say, as a form of personal protest against what has happened 'I was planning to ask any Indonesian students to leave the class'," Jennifer said.

"I wanted to leave but the whole awkwardness of the whole thing, I just sat there thinking ‘oh my God how awful’."

Dr Oldmeadow has apologised for the comments but denied that he asked any students to leave.

He said he felt "physically ill" about the executions and "wanted to make a political comment" but in his "grief" made "the wrong choice".

"Indonesian students should not be treated any differently," he later said.

"We don’t hold them in any way responsible."

Dr Oldmeadow has previously authored a number of articles on stereotyping and discrimination.

In 2010 he wrote a book titled Social status and the pursuit of positive social identity: Systematic domains of intergroup differentiation and discrimination for high-and low-status groups.

Swinburne head of corporate affairs Andrew Dempster said the university takes student complaints "very seriously" and will formally investigate the incident.