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Underrepresentation of Black and Asian students in UK plant science

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The UK plant science strategy establishes “Diverse People and Skills” as an important component of the future of plant science. However, ethnicity data from the UK Higher Education Statistics Authority show that UK plant science students are disproportionately white at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We explore possible reasons for this and offer recommendations for action.

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Fig. 1: Ethnic diversity of UK domiciled biosciences students.
Fig. 2: Relationship between institutional diversity and availability of plant science programmes.

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K.H. initiated the project, analysed data and led writing. Y.B.-A., N.J.P and J.B. generated ideas, suggested further data analysis, and contributed to writing, reviewing and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Katharine Hubbard.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hubbard, K., Patron, N.J., Bleau, J. et al. Underrepresentation of Black and Asian students in UK plant science. Nat. Plants 10, 1272–1275 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01778-w

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