QMU’s Outdoor Learning Hub shortlisted for Green Gown Award
A ‘Wee Forest’ with big impact
Queen Margaret University’s Outdoor Learning Hub has been named a finalist in the 2025 UK & Ireland Green Gown Awards, celebrating exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the world.
Recognised in the Benefitting Society category, the Hub has been commended for its positive impact on individuals, the University, local communities, and wider society.
Launched in March 2024, QMU’s on-campus Outdoor Learning Hub, which includes a Discovery Trail, the Howff (a wooden shelter and meeting space), woodland areas and a ‘Wee Forest’, was designed to enrich students’ learning experiences, strengthen community connections, and address national and global challenges in education, sustainability, health, and wellbeing.
Since its inception, the Hub has generated numerous ongoing positive outcomes, including enhanced learning, activity and habitat biodiversity, and increased opportunities for an enhanced curriculum, partnerships and research.
Patrick Boxall is a Lecturer in Education at QMU, and has led the development of the University’s outdoor education work. He said:
Our ‘wee forest’ is already having a big impact. Together with our partners, we have co-created an inspiring place within the natural world that provides meaningful experiences for students and communities. Created with traditional materials but with a vision that connects physical and digital spaces, the Hub shows how ordinary places - like parks, small woodlands, ponds, meadows and hedgerows - become extraordinary when we learn, reflect and grow within them.
Established to highlight initiatives that reduce environmental effect, the Green Gown Awards help to improve community wellbeing, and embed sustainability into education, with the awards recognising the people and projects driving meaningful change. The 2025 UK & Ireland finals will take place in Birmingham on 6 November.
Patrick, continued: “The Hub has already enriched the experiences of our students and community partners, but its real power lies in the ‘acorns’ it continues to plant – supporting teachers, educators and community leaders to develop skills and confidence they can take back into their own localities. We are delighted that the Green Gown Awards have recognised the multitude of positive outcomes that the Hub has already generated and sees the future potential of its impact.”
Read more about the Awards and finalists here - https://ow.ly/zNJa50Wv9v5
