2024 Survey

The 2024 survey is now closed. The original participant information is below.

Our online survey took place 15th April – 28th May 2024. Thank you to everyone who completed it. We received over 200 responses.

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Participation

Participating in this survey will involve answering questions about your experiences and how you have navigated HE as a non-binary student and/or member of staff. There are some questions about you, your role(s) and your institution. We will also ask about your institution’s existing trans and non-binary policies and about how able you are to be open about your gender identity with others in your institution.

Please do answer the survey again if you took it in 2019. There are some questions at the end that ask you to reflect on changes in the past five years.

The survey should take you around 20-30 minutes to complete. If you choose not to answer any of the open questions, the survey will take about 10 minutes.

Eligibility

Anyone who identifies as non-binary (see definition below) and fulfils one of the additional following criteria is eligible to participate in the survey:

• Current students (undergraduate, postgraduate or PhD) at a UK HE institution;
• Staff in UK HE in any teaching and learning capacity (including librarians, learning developers and others, part-time and full-time staff);
• PhD students who teach at a UK HE institution

The survey is open from Monday 15th April until midnight on Monday 28th May 2024.

If you have any questions or concerns before completing the survey please email the project team at: nonbinaryinHE@westminster.ac.uk

What do we mean by ‘non-binary’?

We recognize that ‘non-binary’ is a contested and shifting term; in this project we are using it as an umbrella term to denote a range of gender identities which fall outside the male/female binary and may or may not involve identifying as trans.

We welcome participation in this survey if you do not identify wholly as one or other of the binary genders. This could include (but is not limited to) the following: genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, bi-gender, pangender, androgynous, androgyne, or neutrois.

 

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2019 Survey

The 2019 survey is now closed! The original participant information is below.

Our online survey took place 1st April – 13th May 2019. We received over 350 responses (thank you!).

Since then we have been working with our survey data. We presented early findings at the 2019 Gender and Education Association Conference, and have been preparing articles for publication.

A survey report and recommendations is available here.
The 2019 version of the survey questions is available here.

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Who is eligible to take the survey?

Anyone who identifies as non-binary (see below) and fulfills one of the following criteria:

• is a current student (undergraduate, postgraduate or PhD) at a UK HE institution;
• has graduated from a UK HE institution in the last 5 years;
• works in UK HE in any teaching and learning capacity (including librarians, learning developers and others);
• is a PhD student who teaches at a UK HE institution.

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What do we mean by ‘non-binary’?

We recognize that ‘non-binary’ is a contested and shifting term; in this project we are using it as an umbrella term to denote a range of gender identities which fall outside the male/female binary and may or may not involve identifying as trans.

We welcome your participation in this survey if you do not identify wholly as one or other of the binary genders.This could include (but is not limited to) the following: genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, bi-gender, pangender, androgynous, androgyne, or neutrois.

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What does participating entail?

Participating in this survey will involve answering questions about your experiences and how you have navigated HE as a non-binary student and/or member of staff. There are some questions about you, your role(s) and your institution. We will also ask about your institution’s existing trans and non-binary policies and about how able you are to be open about your gender identity with others in your institution.

The survey should take you around 20-30 minutes to complete. If you choose not to answer any of the open questions, the survey will take about 10 minutes.

What are the risks and benefits of taking part?

There should be no risks to you of taking part in this project. No individuals should be identifiable from the survey data, or any publications, reports or outputs arising from it. You won’t be asked to identify which HE institution you study/studied/work at. You will also not be obliged to recount any difficult or painful experiences unless you choose to, and all of the questions are designed to be optional.

There are considerable benefits to participating in this survey. You will be contributing to the generation of new knowledge about non-binary people and HE. Your input will help to us to produce a best practice toolkit and policy recommendations for HE institutions, as well as informing the development of inclusive practice in curriculum design and delivery.

What will happen to my data?

Responses to this online survey are confidential and will not be shared beyond the project team. Data will be stored in encrypted and password protected files, complying with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR.

The information you provide in the survey will be analysed by the researchers and may be published in reports, academic publications, toolkits or best practice guidance or presented at academic conferences. Direct quotes from the survey may be (anonymously) used in any outputs.