Gender Diverse Students

At UBC and in Student Housing and Community Services we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming campus environment for all our gender and sexually diverse students, faculty, staff and community members. 

This guide is for trans, non-binary and other gender diverse students who are applying to live in student residence at UBC.

We are excited that you’re interested in applying to live in residence at UBC. We hope this guide helps you better understand how the process works, how we can help and what to expect when you move into your new space at UBC.

Whether you are a first year, upper year or graduate student, use this guide to get set up.

The overview

How the process works—from application to room assignment. 

We’ll go into more detail about a few aspects of this process below, but here’s the basic overview of the process from when you apply to when you receive your room assignment. 

  • Apply: apply for residence by the deadline. Indicate your gender identity and trans experience or select “choose not to disclose”. Provide your residence/room and roommate preferences.
  • Residence offer: Winter Session residence applicants initially receive a generic offer that does not include a specific room assignment. Depending on the time of year, Year Round residence applicants may initially receive a generic room type offer that does not include a specific room assignment. To secure housing, students need to accept the offer by the deadline in their offer (typically 5–7 days).
  • Student Housing follow-up: Depending on the room type you have accepted, before we assign you to a room, we’ll follow up with you by email to learn more about your room and roommate preferences.
  • Room assignment: For incoming Winter Session residents, once we’ve learned more about your preferences and we’ve determined room assignments for all incoming Winter Session residents, we’ll email room assignments (usually mid-August). For Year Round residence applicants, you may receive your offer and room assignment together; then, to secure housing, you need to accept the offer by the deadline we’ve provided (typically 5–7 days).

Apply

Here are some things to keep in mind when completing your application to live in residence. 

Indicating your gender identity and trans experience

In the residence application, we ask all applicants to complete two mandatory fields related to gender identity and trans experience, with the option to choose not to disclose, which align with the EducationPlannerBC application.

  • For gender identity, there are four possible responses: “Woman”, “Man”, “Non-binary” and “Choose not to disclose”.
  • For trans experience, there are three possible responses: “Yes”, “No” and “Choose not to disclose”.

These fields are mandatory, but you are welcome to indicate “choose not to disclose” if the available options do not align with your gender identity or trans experience. Note that in some cases, we will follow-up with students who indicate “choose not to disclose”, in addition to students who indicate a non-binary gender identity or trans experience.

Pre-populated information from your UBC application

If you provided this information in your application to UBC, it usually pre-populates in your residence application. You can change or update this information when you submit your residence application—or anytime afterward. 

After I submit my residence application, can I update my information?

Your application (including residence, room and roommate preferences) can be updated up until the date you receive your offer email. However, you can update your gender identity and trans experience anytime after you apply and while you’re living in residence.

To update your information, visit the My Information page in the SHCS Online Service Centre or contact us for assistance. 

Please allow up to 48 hours for information to update across all the systems we use in Student Housing. If, after that duration, you encounter any inconsistencies or errors with your information, please don’t hesitate to let us know. 

Providing your residence and room preferences 

In the application, we’ll ask you to provide your preferences regarding residence area, room/unit type, living habits and if you are interested in living in an all-gender unit.

Depending on whether you will be moving into Winter Session residence or Year Round residence, a variety of different options are available.

Residences and rooms for gender diverse students

Check out our guide to residences and rooms for gender diverse students.

Visit the guide

Providing your roommate preferences

For a limited time period after you apply—and once you’ve received your application confirmation by email—you’ll be able to provide any preferences for specific roommates online in the SHCS Online Service Centre

Please follow the instructions provided in the confirmation email. 

If you indicate a non-binary gender identity, trans experience or, in some cases, if you’ve chosen not to disclose, we’ll ask a few more questions when we follow up.

Student Housing follow-up

Before we assign you to a room, we’ll follow up with you by email to learn more about your room and roommate preferences.

For Winter Session applicants, we may reach out between late spring and early summer, after you receive your generic offer.

We follow up with applicants who indicate a non-binary gender identity or trans experience and, in some cases, applicants who indicate “choose not to disclose”.

Questions we typically ask

Depending on whether you are a first year student, upper year student, have applied to Winter Session or Year Round residence, and your preferred room types, here are some questions we might ask.

  • Do you prefer to be placed on an all-gender floor or in an all-gender building?
  • Do you prefer to be placed with another student who identifies as trans or non-binary? Do you have a specific person in mind?
  • Do you wish to be placed in an all-gender or single-gender unit? If a single-gender unit, would you prefer a woman-identified or man-identified unit?

Room and roommate confirmation 

After we’ve received your answers, we’ll email you to let you know we have noted your preferences. Since room assignments are based on availability, if your assignment is different from your noted preferences, we’ll email you again to make sure it’s appropriate and so you can let us know if you have any concerns.

Room assignment

In addition to gender identification, room assignments are based on several factors, including application date, age and the room or unit types available.

Winter Session

For students moving into Winter Session residence at the start of the Winter Session (i.e., late-August/early-September), room assignments are typically sent out in mid-August. 

Year Round

For students moving into Year Round residence, offers/assignments are sent out on a rolling basis throughout the year. 

Contacting roommates

Once you’ve received your room assignment—or for Year Round residence, accepted your offer and assignment—you can reach out to any roommates through the Online Service Centre

Getting to know your residence

Living in residence is a unique experience. You may be excited and even nervous at the same time—but don’t worry, we are here to help support you as you settle in.