Geoscience Access, Inclusion and… Belonging? Making Geoscience Degrees a Place of Belonging for All

In the UK, the geosciences are one of the least diverse areas of science at all levels, from school through to senior professionals. This lack of diversity operates on a number of axes, including race, ethnicity, disability, and socioeconomic background. Both universities and learned societies have a range of initiatives to encourage students from under-represented groups to take up geoscience undergraduate degrees. However, merely increasing statistical representation is not sufficient for a truly ethical approach to diversity and inclusion. If we are to progress as a field, we must find ways to make geoscience undergraduate degrees feel like a place of belonging for all.  

We ran a series of workshops for current and recent undergraduates from under-represented groups in geoscience disciplines at UK universities. Groups represented included Black, Asian and minoritised ethnicity students; LGBTQIA+ students; disabled students; students from low-income backgrounds; students who were the first in their family to attend university; students from non-traditional educational backgrounds; international students; and students from a minoritised religious background. Most attendees identified as belonging to more than one of these groups. Geoscience disciplines represented by our attendees included geology, human and physical geography, environmental science and geochemistry.  

During the workshops, we asked participants to tell us about their experiences of geoscience undergraduate degrees and provide practical recommendations for improvements which would increase a sense of belonging. These recommendations covered a range of areas and most can be straightforwardly implemented by individual geoscience lecturers, although some require more institutional buy-in. Here we introduce the findings and recommendations, while full details are available at geoaccess.org.uk.