How can universities better support trans students?

Trans students are burnt out. The constant, pressing need of the discrimination we face forces us to be a politically active community.

We’re forced to step in for each other, sharing medical knowledge with each other that isn’t available elsewhere. We have our own networks of hormone distribution and go to each other’s fundraising events for private surgery. We share our beds and sofas and food. We counter-protest hate groups and process the assaults and harassment we face together as family. We network intergenerationally, run skillshare workshops and discuss organising strategy.

Institutional change can be slow, meaning that we often have to create the change we want to see ourselves. And trans students do this work while we also try to study.

Universities have been making progress on supporting trans students. Across the UK, many are introducing simple practices that can make a difference, such as normalising sharing pronouns (in email signatures, for example), offering gender neutral toilets and making it easier to change names on their IT system.

However, the current transphobic climate in the UK for trans people means change needs to go further. Transphobic hate crimes are up by 87% in Scotland, the BBC reported this month. This follows a sustained attack from the media. Last October, the BBC wrote an article calling trans women sexual predators. It quoted Lily Cade, whose online blog contained violent transphobic statements.

To give us the same chance as our peers in a society that is so hostile to us, universities need to go beyond inclusion. Trans students need allyship.

Trans students are at risk of poverty due to transphobic discrimination from landlords, employers, healthcare and our own families. According to Stonewall, 25% of trans people in Britain have experienced homelessness at some point.

Bursaries and hardship funds for estranged students can make a huge difference to many trans students, whose families may be transphobic. Yet other barriers also remain. For example, some trans students won’t be able to ask their families to be guarantors for them in student rental contracts.

In 2018, Stonewall found that over half of LGBT people (52%) had experienced depression in the previous year. Almost half of trans people (46%) had thought about taking their own life in the same year. Trans students need tailored mental health support. When our mental health affects our studies, we need understanding mitigating circumstances policies. 

Sometimes, trans students’ need for mental health support is directly linked to their experiences of transphobia. During my studies, I was affected by transphobic assaults, arrests at protests and doxxing within our community (doxxing is where someone publishes someone else’s personal information as an attack).

My department at the University of Manchester was incredibly supportive by, for example, granting me extensions for assignments. If I hadn’t received this support, the impact on my academic performance would have been severe.

The reality of our lives as trans students in the UK is a battle for survival. Universities can stand by or stand up for us.

Listening to trans students is vital. They can tell you what trans people need. You can get their message into meetings they’re not invited to. And you can pay them to provide training sessions, write educational material and run events at your university.

For myself and many others, university has been a place where we can finally be ourselves and find our people. And if universities are true allies to trans students, they will talk fondly about their time at university for the rest of their lives.