'Australia not a country' professor in the United States sacked

Southern New Hampshire University, in the USA, ended up firing a professor for nearly failing a student for saying that Australia was, indeed, a country.

Is Australia a country or a continent? Source: Geography Photos/UIG via Getty Images

The unnamed online adjunct professor told 27-year-old student Ashley Arnold, doing an online sociology degree, that Australia is not a country, but a continent, and the professor was replaced by the Southern New Hampshire University.

The university used its Twitter account to apologize:

Ashley Arnold, in Idaho, said her assignment was a comparison between the United States social norms to that of another country and she chose social media use in Australia.

She told BuzzFeed that she was “shocked” when she received a failing grade, with her teacher believing that “Australia is a continent, not a country.”

The school told Huffington Post “We deeply regret the interaction between our professor and our student and have apologized to the student and refunded her for the class. Following an investigation, we have replaced the instructor as we strive to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and accuracy in educating our students.”

From the university's website: "Nonprofit and accredited Southern New Hampshire University has 3000+ on campus students and offers affordable education to 60000+ online degree students."

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