UCAS are an organisation managing all university applications in the UK, and all 700,000 young people applying to undergraduate university courses must fill out the ‘Undergraduate UCAS Form’ each year. This requires inputting many personal details including gender.

Recently much progress has been made in general society in relation to transgender issues, and a growing number of young people are identifying as nonbinary; a group of gender identities for those who are neither a man nor a woman. A recent survey found that 1 in 250 people in the UK identify this way. Unfortunately this progress is not reflected in the UCAS process.  

There is no nonbinary gender option on this form, denying nonbinary people their identity and forcing them to chose a binary gender option they do not identify with.

This is a huge issue for the growing population of nonbinary youth who have the right to be unequivocally themselves. I have just started my university application, and this is supposed to be a time of great joy and excitement, but it has been hindered by the inability to input my true gender to the forms. Non binary genders in the UK have just been refused legal recognition earlier this year by the government, so being recognised in the university system is a small, but necessary part of making young non binary people feel seen and could potentially help cause further change through UK legislation.

Although the undergraduate UCAS form now has a transgender option for binary trans people, this also uses outdated language to refer to gender, i.e. male and female, which are biological sexes and not genders, and therefore cause further confusion in the groups it aims to appease. This would be rectified by having one question regarding gender identity, with options such as cisgender woman, transgender man, and nonbinary, and having a separate question regarding biological sex if they view this as necessary.

On the post-graduate UCAS application form, there is currently an option for nonbinary genders and using the gender neutral title ‘Mx’. This makes it all the more frustrating that this isn’t shared by the undergraduate form, which is used by more people. This needs to be rectified to make young non binary people feel comfortable starting their further education and the next stage of their lives.

This petition calls for UCAS to reform the gender options on their undergraduate application forms, specifically to recognise non binary genders and to add gender neutral options for titles on all of their forms. This change is long over due and keeps being promised by the service but never happens.

Please sign this petition to help the thousands of young nonbinary people who are denied legal and systemic recognition and to give them an opportunity to be themselves in their university environments.