Warwick sees highest number of students seeking help for gender questioning and transitioning

Almost half of students who sought help from their university regarding gender questioning and transitioning from 2016 to 2018 were from the University of Warwick.

Freedom of Information (FoI) requests sent by The Sunday Telegraph to all Russell Group universities found that 89 students asked for help regarding gender questioning and gender transitioning, 39 of which were from Warwick, followed by 37 and 10 students from the universities of Bristol and York respectively.

24 students from the University of Oxford requested to change their gender on official records out of 86 students from the 24 Russell Group institutions. Warwick was the third highest for this request with 14 students.

Queen’s University Belfast was second with 15 students asking to officially change their gender.

When contacted for comment, the University told The Boar that they are “committed to providing a diverse, inclusive environment that supports LGBTUA+ members of [the] community and will not tolerate any cases or discrimination or bullying”.

“Wellbeing Support Services is dedicated to helping those members of our community who would like guidance and support and provides a range of services to support them, including face to face and anonymous email counselling as well as helping them to access the guidance they may require,” they said.

“Wellbeing Support Services will continue to seek ways to further the support available to our LGBTUA+ community.

“We encourage all students who would like help and support to contact Wellbeing Support Services.”

Warwick was third highest for the number of students who requested to change their gender on official records

According to The Sunday Telegraph, the figures reported are “likely to be higher” as some universities did not provide exact values to prevent the identification of individuals. They added that more students identify as transgender than there are submitting formal requests.

Paul Twocock, director of campaigns, policy and research at LGBT rights charity Stonewall, thought that The Sunday Telegraph’s findings “show there’s more to do to help trans students,” although it’s “great that more universities are stepping up to support for their trans students”.

“University should be an exciting time where all students can learn, grow and enjoy their independence, but this isn’t the case for some LGBT people. To change this, we need to see more visible support and leadership from universities across Britain,” he said.

Last year, Stonewall found that 36% of transgender students were discriminated for their gender identity. 39% “would not feel confident” reporting the bullying they faced.

The Sunday Telegraph further reported on the number of complaints regarding discrimination. Two students submitted formal complaints to the universities of Glasgow and Newcastle each. The London School of Economics (LSE) and the universities of Southampton, Bristol, York each received one student complaint.

President of the national transgender support group Beaumont Society, Dr Jane Hamlin, commented on these findings.

University should be an exciting time where all students can learn, grow and enjoy their independence, but this isn’t the case for some LGBT people

– Paul Twocock

“It is disturbing that there have been a number of complaints about gender or transgender discrimination, because such discrimination is illegal,” she said.

“There is clearly a need for support for trans students and the counsellors who try to help them.”

She added: “Most wish that they were not trans because life would be so much easier for them if they were cisgender, but it is who we are, it was how we were born.

“Most people try to keep it hidden and hope that it will go away, but eventually a point is reached where it becomes obvious that it won’t go away.”

Chris McGovern, who is a former government advisor and chairs the Campaign for Real Education, argued otherwise.

He stated that females “historically outperform males,” and that gender performance statistics will become “meaningless if, in fact, young people can choose their gender”.

He added: “It becomes impossible to monitor differences between male and female if one does not accept male and female is a permanent state of being, or that there’s a range of genders in between.”

The figures come after news in January that the National Union of Students (NUS) will be defunding their Trans Campaign

The figures come after news in January that the National Union of Students (NUS) will be defunding their Trans Campaign.

The NUS LGBT+ Campaign issued a statement against this proposal, stating that transgender students “have specific welfare and campaigning needs,” and that work by the Trans Campaign is “highly specialised and requires public policy support which is only available in large NGOs like NUS”.

“It would seem extremely unfortunate of the NUS to decide not to keep its trans officer role,” Dr Hamlin said.

“Perhaps university staff and students are not aware that this role exists and have not been using this valuable resource as effectively as they might.”

It was raised at the NUS Conference 2019, where delegates “challenged the budget estimates for NUS UK for the year 2019/20”.

“They voted to reallocate monies from other budgets within the agreed total amount to fund a Trans Officer in 2019/20,” a spokesperson for the NUS stated.

The Trans Officer for Warwick’s Students’ Union (SU) has been contacted for comment.