Students to wear labels saying he, she... or they

STUDENTS are to be given stickers which indicate whether they would like to be called ‘he’, ‘she’ or something else in tutorials as part of a drive to be transgender-friendly.

The badges allow undergraduates at Birmingham University to declare how they prefer to be referred to in class. Other options include the genderneutral ‘they’ or ‘ze’.

University bosses say the move means transgender students will not feel offended by lecturers and tutors wrongly guessing their gender identity.

The idea of having undergraduates wear the pronoun stickers in small group teaching is part of the university’s training course for academics. It advises staff to establish what pronoun students want them to use at the beginning of sessions, rather than assuming.

Universities have a legal duty to promote equality and many are vetting their procedures.

Birmingham University said the stickers ‘acknowledge that names and genders may not correspond to the names and titles on the registers’.