We are pleased to announced that Open SU (along with The Open University) has been awarded with silver accreditation from the Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme.
Hedgehog Friendly Campus (HFC) is a national award scheme designed to protect hedgehogs, enhance their habitat and create awareness. It gives awards to universities and colleges who complete actions from a 'hedgehog-friendly' toolkit.
We rejoined the Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme in 2022, and achieved HFC bronze status in 2023. However, following a recent audit, we have now received silver accreditation.
There have been two main strands to our work in this area – to help raise awareness and to make changes on campus to improve wildlife habitats. Our activities have included litter picks, activities at a local pre-school and nursery, and setting up hedgehog feeding stations on campus. There was also a joint event with the OU Environmental Sustainability Society in May, with a presentation from an OU student (and expert hedgehog rescuer), Holly, about her voluntary work at Emma's Hedgehog Hospital in Norfolk.
Charon Gates (Faculty Representative, Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, and Hedgehog Friendly Campus Volunteer) said:
"To be accredited as a Silver Hedgehog Friendly Campus vindicates all the hard work put in by the team to raise awareness of our prickly little friends. My primary activity was knitting hedgehogs to raise money for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. These Hedgehogs have been at my Master's graduation, my WELS Faculty Assembly, included in a quiz for my school, and been on adventures around campus to further raise OU staff awareness of our prickly friends' plight. I feel honoured to be a Hog Ambassador."
We'd like to give a big thank you for all our students, reps and staff who have been involved in this work. It's a fantastic achievement.
If you'd like to discover more about this work (or would like to get involved), please contact hedgehog-friendly@open.ac.uk.
You can see a list all the HFC recipients for 2025 via this article on the Students Organising for Sustainability website.
You can also find out more about the OU's Environmental Sustainability Society by visiting their website.