Freie Universität Berlin strives to create a space that fosters respect and acceptance among a highly diverse student body and staff and carries out a number of measures to this effect. The university has a long history of promoting gender equity, and one way it has done so is by supporting efforts to strengthen the use of inclusive language. What we hope to achieve by using inclusive language and addressing people by their correct pronouns is that everyone here feels welcome to be themselves and that no one is shut out from university life. 

The Executive Board issued a set of regulations in 2022 stating that the entire range of gender identities must be taken into account in the official communication of Freie Universität Berlin, unless the communication is only addressed or refers to people of a specific gender. This does not constitute a wholesale obligation to use gender-neutral or gender-inclusive language, and the university is not monitoring the language used by its students and staff. 

These regulations do not apply to the individual communication carried out by employees, students, or the departments and institutes. However, we hope they inspire our members to use inclusive language in those contexts as well. 

The student parliament forms part of the student body as a semi-autonomous sub-entity within the university (rechtsfähige Teilkörperschaft). This means that the student parliament acts independently in determining its own policies; for example, the committee adopted the self-imposed obligation to only use gender-neutral and gender-inclusive language with regard to its own operations.

No, this is not true. Requests, applications, and queries addressed to Freie Universität Berlin will be processed regardless of whether they have been written using gender-neutral language.

You can find further information and access to other resources related to diversity, such as how we define “diversity,” our Diversity Strategy and Action Plan, and services we offer at Freie Universität Berlin here.