Open SU (along with The Open University) has once again been awarded 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 since then have been awarded HFC bronze status (in 2023) and then silver in 2025 and 2026. Our silver accreditation will last until 2028.
We have engaged in a number of activities to help hedgehogs and other wildlife this year:
- The Grounds team at the OU added a Hedgehog sign to campus to advise cyclists and pedestrians to be careful in our hedgehog spots.
- We ran various nature and wildlife-inspired events throughout the year to raise awareness, including:
- how to invite wildlife into your garden.
- introducing Hedgehog Friendly Campus at Welcome Week.
- having stalls at in-person fairs.
- running workshops on building bug hotels.
- organising a BioBlitz with the OU Environmental Sustainability Society.
- Open SU engaged with the local community too by visiting local schools and nurseries, teaching children about the importance of wildlife and making space for them in our gardens.
- Raising money for charity – Open SU donated their payment for presenting a session at the Gardening Club to our local rescue facility, Deanshanger Hedgehog Rescue.
- Possibly the most exciting...introducing Merlin, a rehabilitated hedgehog to the OU campus with a dedicated hedgehog house and feeding station!
Charon Gates, our Faculty Representative for Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS), said: "The renewal of our silver accreditation reflects the work The Open University and Open SU are doing to continue to support our prickly friends. Merlin has settled in well and we hope to bring some more of our prickly friends to live on campus in the next academic year."
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 find out more about Open SU's environmental and sustainability work – you can also see a list of all the HFC recipients for 2026 via the Students Organising for Sustainability website.