Low ethnic diversity among university applicants in marine and environmental science in the United Kingdom

The planet faces a triple crisis from climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Like any country, the UK needs to attract the best available talent to become thought leaders to overcome these global challenges. Several Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects in the UK face challenges with attracting ethnic minority students. As part of a wider project on diversity in UK environmental/marine science, we analysed university applications amongst 180 environmental and 88 marine science degrees in the UK between 2019–2021. We found them to be the least diverse degree subjects for ethnic minority students and Asian students were less likely to be accepted than white students on environmental science degrees. A survey of UK marine science course leaders highlights the belief that these issues impact the pipeline of diversity from higher education institutions to marine/environmental science careers. In this paper, we discuss the impacts of these findings and develop a roadmap to change.