More than a walk in the park: Enhancing campus green space for student and staff learning and wellbeing

In this chapter, Agnes Bosanquet, Miles Holmes, Kate Lloyd, Kath McLachlan and Waminda Parker explore the impact of a nature-wellness trail on learning and wellbeing on a university campus. Staff and students collaborated to engage with outdoor spaces in the bush and waterways of Wallumattagal Campus, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The chapter explores staff and student engagement with the campus green spaces and how student and staff engagement with a nature-wellness trail contributes to improving physical and mental health and social wellbeing of people and the planet. Guided by a NatureFix app, students and staff participated in reflective nature-based sensory activities, connecting with each other and the beautiful campus to care, heal and regenerate people and place. Drawing on Nørgård and Bengtsen’s (2016) call for valuing the “placeful” university, and scholarly evidence on the benefits on-going nature-connection can have on wellbeing and stress regulation, this research found significant increases in positive mood, place appreciation, and attention restoration from 15–20 minutes on the wellbeing trail.