"She", "mankind" and "workmanship" are among the gendered terms that some Australian universities have now banned.

In a move towards gender neutrality, some universities have taken to banning any words with gendered meaning.

As a result, students are losing marks on assignments if they are seen to be using language that isn't inclusive.

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Queensland University of Technology has employed the policy, excluding terms such as 'wife of' or 'mother of' as exclusive words, and has deemed the suffix 'man' as sexist.

The University of Sydney claims it would prefer its students to just be grammatically incorrect over being politically incorrect.

The acting dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Queensland, Professor Julie Dick agrees with the decision made by some universities.

"Students are advised to avoid gender-biased language in the same way they are advised to avoid racist language, clichés, contractions, colloquialisms, and slang in their essays," she says.

Furthermore, students have been warned not to speak about women in a secondary position to someone else.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham openly disagrees with the policies, telling The Daily Mail the universities are enforcing "nanny state stuff" on students.  

"Our universities should be better than this rubbish," he said.