Stonewell's gay guide to University

A report, published by The Guardian and informed by www.gaybydegree.org.uk, has concluded that the following four univerisities gain top marks for being gay-friendly; Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth.

Last year, Stonewell, which campaigns for equality and justice for Lesbians, gay men and bisexuals, launched a guide to assess just how gay-friendly each of our Universities are. In its first year of publication no institution met every criterion, but this year four did: Imperial College, University College London, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth.

Chris Dye, Stonewall's education officer, who helped to put together the guide, suggests its very existence has prompted institutions to improve. "All universities were notified last year that they were being profiled," he says. "The checklist has allowed them to compare themselves with other institutions and that may be why they have got better."

Dye suggests that the Equality Act 2010, which simplifies and strengthens existing legislation, may have made a difference, as has the prospect of higher tuition fees. "People will be looking a lot more to get value for money generally and LGBT students will want to know exactly what their university is providing for them," he says.

Mike Lawson, an automotive engineering student and chair of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Society at Wolverhampton University, says that things have improved noticeably in the two years he has been there, with better structures for students to voice any concerns. The university has strong staff and student LGBT networks and the LGBT Society recently campaigned successfully for transgender toilets in the student union.

"If we have a problem, there are people we know we can go to and say 'we don't think this is fair'," he says. "Things like that do get fixed."

He says he has always felt accepted, even by the "butch lads" on his engineering course, but that the LGBT Society has been invaluable. "It has been great for my personal development, confidence, friendships and for connecting me with loads of other people," he says.

Jak Hammond, a second-year digital forensics student and social secretary of the LGBT Society at Portsmouth University, says the LGBT group of staff and students at Portsmouth is open and approachable and "care about each other" without being cliquey in any way.

LGBT issues were fundamental to his choice of university, he says. "I wanted to make sure I could get to a university where I could enjoy it, but also be myself."

Dye says LGBT pupils often have a hard time at school, with 65% experiencing homophobic bullying and most of them finding their schoolwork affected, so they want university to be different.

The Guardian reports that, '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.

'This year, the assessment was based entirely on information available in the public domain because Stonewall felt it was important to measure not only what provisions institutions had in place, but also how accessible information on these provisions was to prospective students. As the guide is online, it can be updated throughout the year.'

However, some educational institutions don't fair so well in this year's guide. Middlesex, Glasgow Caledonian and Ulster for example only met one of the standards used as part of the scoring system, and others, including Buckingham and the University of the Highlands and Islands, met none at all.