Gay By Degree
Stonewall has published the second edition of its survey of how LGBT friendly UK universities are: Gay By Degree is sets out to give LGBT students an idea of how supportive their potential place of study will be to them. It is important to feel secure in an environment like a university, studying in a supportive institution could mean the difference between academic success or failure and is the sort of issue straight students never have to think about. University can be an intense period of self discovery and development, it is important to allow students the space to discover themselves and how they relate to the world, if they are made to suppress their real feelings and conform to social norms that aren't natural to them, the negative effects can be harmful and long lasting.
Stonewall assesses each university against ten criteri:
the guide assesses 160 universities according to whether they have a policy that protects LGBT students from bullying, whether they have compulsory staff training on LGBT issues and a student LGBT society, whether they offer information on LGBT issues, specialised events, explicit welfare provision, consultation and career advice for LGBT students, whether they have an LGBT staff network, and whether they are members of Stonewall's diversity champion's programme, a network of organisations that work together, and with Stonewall, to ensure a working environment where everyone can be themselves.
[I notice the absence of "T" above and will investigate why Trans people aren't included in the guidelines.]
Stonewall uses 10 major criteria, only four universities met all of them:Imperial College, University College London, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth. Stonewall believes that having the list will have a positive influence on universities in a similar way to their lists on equality in the workplace. Universities that remain at the bottom of the list will surely gain adverse criticism and eventually change. Stonewall avoids ranking the institutions, but more universities met at least eight of the criteria than last year, there are big variations: some, including Middlesex (new fees: £8,602), Glasgow Caledonian and Ulster meet just one, and others, including Buckingham and the University of the Highlands and Islands, meet none at all. I wonder if being at the bottom of the heap will affect their policies.
Stonewall assesses each university against ten criteri:
the guide assesses 160 universities according to whether they have a policy that protects LGBT students from bullying, whether they have compulsory staff training on LGBT issues and a student LGBT society, whether they offer information on LGBT issues, specialised events, explicit welfare provision, consultation and career advice for LGBT students, whether they have an LGBT staff network, and whether they are members of Stonewall's diversity champion's programme, a network of organisations that work together, and with Stonewall, to ensure a working environment where everyone can be themselves.
[I notice the absence of "T" above and will investigate why Trans people aren't included in the guidelines.]
Stonewall uses 10 major criteria, only four universities met all of them:Imperial College, University College London, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth. Stonewall believes that having the list will have a positive influence on universities in a similar way to their lists on equality in the workplace. Universities that remain at the bottom of the list will surely gain adverse criticism and eventually change. Stonewall avoids ranking the institutions, but more universities met at least eight of the criteria than last year, there are big variations: some, including Middlesex (new fees: £8,602), Glasgow Caledonian and Ulster meet just one, and others, including Buckingham and the University of the Highlands and Islands, meet none at all. I wonder if being at the bottom of the heap will affect their policies.
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