We have recently been looking into this. Apparently current
European human rights legislation is being reviewed. One of
our graduates argued that following a sex change it was
unfair of us to issue a document to confirm that the 'person
formally known as XXXX graduated in such and such a subject
at such and such a time'. They said that they had sought
legal advice as they felt very strongly that they should
have the right to meet new people/employers and be able to
prove their qualification without revealing the fact that
they had had a sex change. Whilst we sympathise with the
situation our policy is not to issue a certificate in a new
name for any reason. We are keeping an eye on changes in
legislation and although have not changed our policies we
recognise that we would like to and indeed will have to do
so within the next few years.
Helen Atkinson
Academic Affairs
Keele University
Iain Rowan wrote:
>
> We receive a number of requests every year to produce new award
> parchments for students who have changed their names.
>
> The reasons for the change run from marriage/divorce, through to changes
> of sex, and most recently a request from a student who has changed his
> name by statutory declaration, as he was planning to work in an
> Arabic-speaking country, and his original name had offensive and
> blasphemous connotations in Arabic.
>
> How do colleagues respond to such requests? We have had a policy that
> the degree parchment issued at graduation is produced for the student as
> named at that time, and that we do not produce new parchments to reflect
> changes in name, even on the production of statutory declarations etc.,
> but I would like to know how this compares to other institutions.
>
> Thanks
>
> Iain Rowan
> Head of the Student Office
> University of Sunderland
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