Is the grass always greener? Access to campus green spaces can boost students’ sense of belonging

Abstract

Purpose An important facet of student’s sense of belonging is students’ relationships with, and time spent in, the university campus. The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion that access to campus “green space”, including parks, fields and gardens, may bolster students’ sense of belonging, improve well-being feelings and promote place attachment. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed students in different locations (including three green and one non-green campus spaces) across a large UK campus-based Northern institution. 146 students participated in the study in one of the four campus locations. The authors investigated how being in green spaces on campus may impact students’ sense of belonging, well-being and place attachment. The authors also qualitatively explored students’ perceptions of campus spaces through Ahn’s (2017) 10 Words Question measure. Findings Analyses demonstrate that students surveyed in green spaces reported significantly more positive sense of belonging, compared to students surveyed in non-green campus spaces. Campus location did not impact well-being, however. Students associated green spaces on campus with “calm”, “positive emotion” and “nature” words and non-green spaces with “busy”, “social” and “students”. Practical implications Taken together, the results of this paper suggest that access to green spaces can be important for campus sense of belonging. Thus, efforts should be made to ensure the sustainability of these important spaces across university campuses. Originality/value This study crucially examines how occupying green spaces on university campuses may impact students’ feelings of belongingness. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that uses field-based methods to understand students’ feelings whilst occupying green spaces.

Неакадемічний Студентський Досвід В Умовах Постмодернізму

“…На додаток до семи сфер, про які ми раніше згадували, інфраструктура кампуса також відіграє важливу роль у студентському досвіді, залученості, почутті приналежності та задоволеності студентів (Thompson et al, 2023). Інфраструктура являє собою поняття фізичного доказу, наприклад, студенти очікують на привабливі об'єкти кампусу, сучасне високоякісне обладнання та швидке обслуговування, що відсилає до «тематизації» (Pine & Gilmore, 2019), метою якої є зробити досвід більш рухомим та таким, що запам'ятовується, шляхом уніфікації різноманітних елементів, які його складають.…”