Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category
The University of Tasmania’s ‘This is Me’ project is a whole-of-system identity transformation designed to ensure staff, students, alumni, contractors and volunteers can have their names, pronouns, titles and gender accurately reflected across university systems. Created in response to gender-diverse staff and students reporting exclusionary and fragmented identity update processes, the project replaces manual, inconsistent workflows with self-service, real-time identity updates across more than 100 IT systems.
Co-designed with lived-experience participants, the project prioritised user dignity and safety over technical convenience. It introduced expanded gender fields, flexible naming structures, preferred name use, custom pronoun options and tighter controls over where sensitive legal identity data is displayed.
‘This is Me’ demonstrates how inclusive digital infrastructure can reduce harm, improve data integrity, strengthen belonging and set a new benchmark for diversity, equity and inclusion in tertiary education.
Impacts & Benefits
- Transformed identity management across 100+ IT systems, replacing fragmented manual processes with more consistent, automated and user-controlled updates.
- Reduced identity change processing time, from approximately three weeks to less than 24 hours for many updates.
- Improved safety, dignity and belonging, reducing risks of deadnaming, misgendering and public exposure of sensitive legal name details.
- Supported diverse identity needs, including expanded gender options, custom pronouns, single-name structures, flexible name ordering and culturally diverse naming conventions.
- Reduced administrative burden, saving an estimated 300 staff hours annually and improving data accuracy across university systems.
Leadership & Engagement
- Demonstrated strong executive leadership, with sponsorship from the Chief People Officer, Chief Information Officer and senior inclusion, diversity and equity governance.
- Centred authentic co-design, involving more than 20 gender-diverse, transgender and gender-fluid staff and students in shaping project decisions.
- Recognised lived experience as expertise, paying students for participation and covering travel costs for staff and students involved in face-to-face co-design.
- Shifted decision-making power toward users, with the reference group guiding design.
- Created a sector-leading model for inclusive systems, including vendor engagement that may improve software options for other institutions.
Wider Societal Impact
- Normalised inclusive identity systems at scale, showing that complex organisations can redesign digital infrastructure around dignity, safety and self-identification.
- Influenced wider sector practice, with the project lead engaging 12 other universities and presenting through Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia.
- Encouraged vendor change, helping external IT providers understand and respond to the need for inclusive gender and identity functionality.
- Created a replicable approach for other sectors, with relevance to universities, TAFEs, schools, health services, superannuation providers, government and large employers.
Top 3 learnings
Supported by
Category finalists
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category
The University of Tasmania’s ‘This is Me’ project is a whole-of-system identity transformation designed to ensure staff, students, alumni, contractors and volunteers can have their names, pronouns, titles and gender accurately reflected across university systems. Created in response to gender-diverse staff and students reporting exclusionary and fragmented identity update processes, the project replaces manual, inconsistent workflows with self-service, real-time identity updates across more than 100 IT systems.
Co-designed with lived-experience participants, the project prioritised user dignity and safety over technical convenience. It introduced expanded gender fields, flexible naming structures, preferred name use, custom pronoun options and tighter controls over where sensitive legal identity data is displayed.
‘This is Me’ demonstrates how inclusive digital infrastructure can reduce harm, improve data integrity, strengthen belonging and set a new benchmark for diversity, equity and inclusion in tertiary education.
Top 3 learnings
Impacts & Benefits
- Transformed identity management across 100+ IT systems, replacing fragmented manual processes with more consistent, automated and user-controlled updates.
- Reduced identity change processing time, from approximately three weeks to less than 24 hours for many updates.
- Improved safety, dignity and belonging, reducing risks of deadnaming, misgendering and public exposure of sensitive legal name details.
- Supported diverse identity needs, including expanded gender options, custom pronouns, single-name structures, flexible name ordering and culturally diverse naming conventions.
- Reduced administrative burden, saving an estimated 300 staff hours annually and improving data accuracy across university systems.
Leadership & Engagement
- Demonstrated strong executive leadership, with sponsorship from the Chief People Officer, Chief Information Officer and senior inclusion, diversity and equity governance.
- Centred authentic co-design, involving more than 20 gender-diverse, transgender and gender-fluid staff and students in shaping project decisions.
- Recognised lived experience as expertise, paying students for participation and covering travel costs for staff and students involved in face-to-face co-design.
- Shifted decision-making power toward users, with the reference group guiding design.
- Created a sector-leading model for inclusive systems, including vendor engagement that may improve software options for other institutions.
Wider Societal Impact
- Normalised inclusive identity systems at scale, showing that complex organisations can redesign digital infrastructure around dignity, safety and self-identification.
- Influenced wider sector practice, with the project lead engaging 12 other universities and presenting through Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia.
- Encouraged vendor change, helping external IT providers understand and respond to the need for inclusive gender and identity functionality.
- Created a replicable approach for other sectors, with relevance to universities, TAFEs, schools, health services, superannuation providers, government and large employers.
Supported by
Category finalists
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
