Young people in one of Milton Keynes’ most deprived neighbourhoods will gather at a community fridge and café to eat, tell stories, and build connections with nature, as a first step toward careers in environmental science. The project tackles a well-documented lack of diversity in UK environmental professions: ethnic minorities make up less than 5% of the environmental workforce, compared to 19.3% of the UK population, and people from low socio-economic backgrounds and those with disabilities are also underrepresented. A key reason is that children in areas of multiple deprivation have little early exposure to the natural world, creating a “leaky pipeline” that steadily loses underrepresented students as they move through school and into higher education. BEYOND will pilot five interventions—four at the Woughton Community Council and one at The Open University—engaging roughly 30 young people, half at Key Stages 3–4 and half at Key Stage 5. If successful, the model could be expanded across the UK through the Open University’s offices in Belfast, Cardiff, and Edinburgh, offering a replicable way to connect cold spots of higher education with local greenspaces and universities.
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The lack of diversity in UK higher education in the environmental sciences, and professions in the environment sector, is a well-recognised challenge. For example, ethnic minorities make <5% of the labour force in environmental professions (compared to 19.3% of the UK population). Similarly, those representing low socio-economic backgrounds as well as those who identify as disabled are underrepresented in the sector. Furthermore, as secondary school pupils progress towards higher education in STEM subjects there is a steady decline of underrepresented members of the community, in what is referred to as the ‘leaky pipeline’. Various reasons have been suggested for the low representation in environmental science subjects, a salient one being lack of early exposure to, and connection with, the natural world. Across the UK, areas of multiple deprivation are known to be the least connected to nature, as well as being ‘cold spots’, i.e. areas of low inclusion, in higher education. These structural inequalities, combined with a hegemonic system that reconstructs existing privilege, feed into low diversity in environmental sciences in universities and environmental professions. Professional bodies, such as the British Ecological Society, have recognised the challenge of promoting early engagement with nature, via the local community or at school. However, barriers in promoting inclusive opportunities to engage underrepresented groups in the environment sector remain. This is why innovative approaches to inclusion are needed. The BEYOND project will connect young people living in a ‘cold spot’ with their school, natural environment, and local higher education institution, creating a first stepping stone from nature engagement to education and professional expertise. Milton Keynes, a new city designed in the 1960s on a template of garden city movement, will be the case study for this project. While Milton Keynes includes an extensive network of parks and greenspaces, there are also areas of multiple deprivation. These coincide with lack of green space and low success in higher education. They are ‘cold spots’. BEYOND will pilot the opening up of nature, and environmental sciences engagement and learning, at Woughton parish, a ‘cold spot’ next to The Open University. BEYOND will provide young people with opportunities at the Woughton Community Fridge, Larder and Cafe to gather, eat, tell stories, and build connections with nature, while motivating them and providing career options and mentoring support to higher education and subsequent profession in the sector. We will undertake five interventions (four at the Community Council and one at The Open University) engaging approximately 30 young people (15 of them at Key Stages (KS) 3-4 level and 15 at KS5). The events at Woughton Community Council will be supported with partnership and expertise from local and national conservation and professional organisations such as The Parks Trust MK, National Trust and The Open University. Whilst we focus on these areas close to the University in response to the 2025 call, our vision is to take the learning from this into the 2026 call where we would look to work across the four nations through the OU’s offices in Belfast, Cardiff, and Edinburgh covering Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, as well as extending our work in Milton Keynes.
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