Students’ Union VP Academic Representation Luke Myer has successfully lobbied a £3bn U.S. tech corporation, Ellucian, to better facilitate the needs of transgender students.

Following extensive campaigning by Myer, Ellucian has upgraded its administrative software, Quercus, to include the option for students to change their name, pronouns, and gender designations.

The software is used by universities nationwide, and the change to allow students to assign their own gender designation is a huge step forwards for trans rights and equality in the higher education sector.

The campaign lasted two years, during which Luke drew upon university connections, American counterparts, and fellow students.

As a result, Ellucian’s new software, Quercus 8.16, has been designed to allow institutions to add additional items to student records, meaning students can amend their own names, pronouns, and gender designations.

The developments will mean that the process of making changes to names, pronouns, and gender designations will be less burdensome, as students will be able to have their gender amended by self-declaring to Student Services, without the need for complex and unnecessary medical or legal checks.

Edge Hill University now plans to upgrade its infrastructure and database before adopting version 8.16, aiming to have made such changes by Christmas 2018.

Of the campaign, Luke Myer said: "With one in seven trans university students considering dropping out because of harassment or discrimination, there is a long way to go before universities are fully safe and accepting places - but this is a valuable step in the right direction. I'm really grateful for the work of colleagues here and across the pond to secure this development."

Transgender students were also positive about the changes.

One Theatre Design student, who identifies as non-binary, said: “Even if it’s something as simple as getting the correct name on their ID cards, this is just something that makes trans and non-binary students’ lives easier. It’s not fair to look at a name that isn’t yours. This stuff won’t make a difference for the general public, but for the people it will affect, it’ll be massive.”

In 2017, Luke was elected as Edge Hill Students’ Union’s Vice President for Academic Representation, campaigning on a platform of transition support for trans students on campus.

He found that the university were willing to make such changes, but were constrained by the limitations of their software. Edge Hill, along with many institutions in the UK and Ireland, use “Quercus”, a student information system run by HE software giant Ellucian. In the past, this software didn’t allow students to easily change their pronouns, gender, or name, meaning trans students were frequently being mis-gendered or called by their ‘deadnames’ by tutors.

The problem was not limited to the UK. In 2014, staff and students at universities across the United States worked to develop their student databases to allow transgender students to change their name, pronouns, and gender designations. Many of them used “Banner”, a much larger Ellucian system run in 1,400 institutions across 40 countries. The tech corporation eventually rolled out a 'preferred name' field, and, in 2016, an update to support gender changes. Banner 8.8.9 allowed for gender designation and personal pronouns - including a third recognised gender option for non-binary students.

But the same upgrade wasn't rolled out elsewhere. Ellucian’s Quercus system is much smaller, designed for efficiency and cloud-based connections; when they were posed the question about trans support in September 2017, it was announced there was no update forthcoming to match the USA.

The announcement of Luke’s successful campaign comes at a pertinent time for the trans community at Edge Hill University. On the 20th November, students from all demographics participated in Edge Hill Students’ Union’s Transgender Day of Remembrance celebrations, with the university’s historic main building lit up in the colours of the Transgender and Non-binary flag.

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