One of the social shifts of recent years has been the increased awareness that human beings cannot be divided in only two gender categories along a certain set of bodily characteristics. Therefore, when posing the question of what the student body of the future should look like, it is also necessary to broaden perspectives beyond the two-sex/gender model and to include a historically marginalised group of students in both higher education policy and research. Based on the EUROSTUDENT VII microdata (Cuppen et al., 2023), an initial international comparative analysis of the living and study situation of students who identify outside the binary gender model was carried out for eight European countries (Dau, 2023). In several areas, this analysis reveals some strong differences compared to students who identify as female or male [1]. For example, students with a non-binary gender specification have significantly more financial difficulties across countries, think more often about dropping out of their studies and rate their study situation in some aspects worse than female and male students. In addition to these cross-national trends, students with a non-binary gender specification report much more often health impairments, with a comparatively high frequency of mental health problems.
Relevant literature and the regression analyses carried out suggest that these disadvantages result from experiences of discrimination, a lack of financial support due to a strained relationship with parents and a lack of a sense of belonging at university. Building on this analysis (Dau, 2023), a brief investigation is being conducted based on the EUROSTUDENT 8 microdata [2], which now includes data from non-binary students from 14 countries. In addition, these data contain internationally comparable information on specific experiences of discrimination by students in a higher education context for the first time. Initial insights already show that in all countries, binary students experience discrimination more often because of their gender (Menz & Mandl, 2024). Furthermore, the new data provide a more detailed insight into the mental health status of students. This not only allows the initial analysis of this topic to be underpinned with updated data, but also enables a deeper exploration of the relationship between students with non-binary genders and their experiences of discrimination.
Based on the first international comparative analysis (Dau, 2023, forthcoming) and relevant literature, it was possible to formulate some recommendations that would enable a more gender-inclusive university and teaching. Additionally, to achieve gender-equal higher education research and policy in the long term, it was necessary to propose an alternative variant to surveying gender.
Discussing these research results with an international audience presents an opportunity for a future-oriented university to address the underrepresentation of a certain group among students and to advance the discipline through the implementation of new survey variants.

LITERATURE
Cuppen, J., Muja, A., Hauschildt, K., Daniel, A., Buck, D., Mandl, S. & Unger, M. (2023). Eurostudent VII. Data Collection: 2019-2021. Version: 3.1.0. Data Package Access Way: SUF: Download. Hanover: FDZ-DZHW. Data Curation: Daniel, A., Buck, D. & Wallis, M. https://doi.org/10.21249/DZHW:es7:3.1.0
Dau, J. (2023). Studierende mit abinärer Geschlechtsangabe - eine Lücke mit Sternchen in der Hochschulforschung. Master Thesis. University of Vienna. Available at: 10.25365/thesis.74435.
Menz, C., & Mandl, S. (2024). Discrimination in the context of higher education (EUROSTUDENT 8 Topical module report). https://www.eurostudent.eu/download_files/documents/TM_Discrimination.pdf.
[1] An article in English on these research results is currently in the publication process: Dau, J. (forthcoming). Beyond the Binary: A Comparative Analysis across Europe of Non-Binary Student Experiences and Methodological Considerations for Surveying on Gender. In A. Curaj, R. Pricopie, & C.-M. Hâj (Hrsg.), European Higher Education Area 2030: Bridging Realities for Tomorrow’s Higher Education (forthcoming). Springer Cham.
[2] The first publication of results on non-binary students with the new data from EUROSTUDENT 8 is planned for August 2024 as an Intelligence Brief. The microdata will be available from July 2024.

Discriminating others violates Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Council of Europe, 1950) and research shows a negative association of discrimination experiences with, for example, college/university satisfaction (e.g., Del Toro & Hughes, 2020), learning outcomes (e.g., Karuppan & Barari, 2011), and health aspects (e.g., Devakumar et al., 2022; Williams et al., 2019). Therefore, investigating discrimination experiences in the context of higher education is crucial for an inclusive future of education. In this contribution, we will present EUROSTUDENT 8 data from a country comparative perspective, focusing on the prevalence of discrimination experiences among students, the criteria students feel discriminated against, and who students feel discriminated by. As it is known that these two groups are often disadvantaged and as they are identifiable in the data set, a special focus is placed on female students and students with disabilities.

On average of all 22 EUROSTUDENT countries, every fifth student indicates having experienced discrimination in the context of their studies, with percentage rates varying and ranging from 12 % in Norway to 31 % in Portugal. Female students report having experienced discrimination more often than men. The differences between groups are even more striking when looking at students with(out) disabilities: On average, more than twice as many students with disabilities report discrimination experiences compared to students without disabilities. Within all EUROSTUDENT countries, students indicate most often being discriminated in the context of their studies by other students (15 %), followed by teachers (11 %), and lastly by other university staff (5 %). Within the presentation, we will additionally dive deeper into specific discrimination experiences (by different groups of people), variation within study fields, and students’ safety-feeling.

Overall, this shows that discrimination should not be neglected in the university context, which is why higher education institutions with their claim to be open to everyone and open-minded must play a leading role in counteracting it. For example, offering anti-discrimination services or customised training courses for their teaching staff could be a first step.

Council of Europe, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocols Nos. 11 and 14, 4 November 1950, ETS 5, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3b04.html [accessed 16 April 2024]

Del Toro, J., & Hughes, D. (2020). Trajectories of discrimination across the college years: Associations with academic, psychological, and physical adjustment outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 772–789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01147-3

Devakumar, D., Selvarajah, S., Abubakar, I., Kim, S. S., McKee, M., Sabharwal, N. S., Saini, A., Shannon, G., White, A. I., & Achiume, E. T. (2022). Racism, xenophobia, discrimination, and the determination of health. The Lancet, 400(10368), 2097–2108.

Karuppan, C. M., & Barari, M. (2010). Perceived discrimination and international students' learning: An empirical investigation. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 33(1), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2011.537013

Williams, D. R., Lawrence, J. A., Davis, B. A., & Vu, C. (2019). Understanding how discrimination can affect health. Health Services Research, 54, 1374–1388. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13222

Universities contribute significantly to the sustainability goal "Equitable and Quality Education" of the 2030 Agenda (Bundesregierung, 2023), and promoting diversity is a core task of higher education development in the 21^st century (Ihme & Stürmer, 2019). However, not all measures developed by universities in this context are based on empirical evidence. One example is the creation and publication of diversity mission statements. In the U.S. context, these have been analyzed concerning their rationale for diversity. Starck et al. (2021) demonstrated that universities emphasize either a moral rationale (diversity as a value in itself), an instrumental rationale (diversity as beneficial to the institution), or a combination of both. They found that the prevalence of the instrumental rationale was higher than that of the moral rationale. Regarding the impact of these rationales, it was found that (potential) students from marginalized groups preferred universities that communicated a moral rationale. Moreover, they anticipated a greater sense of belonging, achieved better grades, and had higher graduation rates compared to students at institutions that communicated an instrumental rationale.

To date, no comparable studies exist in the German-speaking context. The different cultural context, however, limits the transferability of the results. Therefore, this study used a structured content analysis (Mayring, 2010) to examine whether both rationales are communicated in the diversity mission statements of public universities in Germany and how prevalent they are. The websites of all universities in Germany (N = 78) were searched for diversity mission statements based on specific criteria between June and September 2023. In total, n = 73 universities addressed the topic of diversity on their websites. Coding was conducted using a deductively developed coding scheme, and additional categories were formed inductively. Of the 73 universities studied, n = 67 (86%) cited at least one moral argument, n = 58 (73%) cited at least one instrumental argument, and n = 55 universities (71%) cited at least one moral as well as one instrumental argument. On average, universities cited more moral (M = 3.03; SD = 2.62) than instrumental arguments (M = 1.60; SD = 1.53; t(127.29) = 4.02, p < .001). Additional inductively formed categories related to the fact that the university promotes diversity "out of tradition," due to legal requirements, or other external demands (e.g., because potential students expect it). The results highlight the need to investigate the impact of different rationales for diversity on students from various groups in the German-speaking context. Therefore, experimental studies are planned, which will be previewed in the presentation.

References

Bundesregierung. (2023, 15th august). Hochwertige Bildung weltweit. https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/nachhaltigkeitspolitik/bildung-weltweit-1004538

Ihme, T. A., & Stürmer, S. (2019). Diversität auf den Webseiten deutscher Universitäten: Eine Forschungsskizze. Zeitschrift Für Diversitätsforschung Und -Management, 4(1-2), 154–161. https://doi.org/10.3224/zdfm.v4i1-2.20

Mayring, P. (2010). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Grundlagen und Techniken (11th edition). Beltz. https://doi.org/25533

Starck, J. G., Sinclair, S., & Shelton, J. N. (2021). How university diversity rationales inform student preferences and outcomes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(16). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013833118

18