Current influences in the development of future-oriented forestry programs

• Main Author: Бастіан Кайзер
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ukrainian National Forestry University 2019-12-01
• Series: Науковий вісник НЛТУ України
• Subjects: forestry education; interdisciplinarity and intradisciplinarity; history of forestry; social responsibility and challenge; institutional profile building; individual profiling
• Online Access: https://nv.nltu.edu.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/2094

The survival of Rottenburg University of Applied Sciences (HFR) was repeatedly questioned politically in the mid-1990 s. This had nothing to do with the fact that well-trained forestry academics were no longer needed, but had been triggered by fiscal policy savings. The applied Universities with forestry programs (five) and forestry faculties (four) in Germany are rather small and had no strong lobby like the forestry itself. Unlike some competitors, in this precarious situation, the universities did not opt for a change in their clear forestry profile, but for a broader, future-oriented understanding of modern forestry. For this purpose, they are orientated on the experience from their own past and the discipline, analyse the developments in the industries and sectors that are close to forestry and specifically sought strategic partnerships in order to be able to expand their own field of competence. Thus, the conviction for their own development process originated, that the forestry science has come in its history from the practice, passing a period influenced by knowledge of the general sciences. After that, the universities joined a phase of the development of forestry disciplines, and now they must turn back to the practice again. In this sense, a circle seems to close here and the universities have an additional, important task to deal with: more than before, in addition to teaching and research, the transfer of research results must also be put into practice. At the same time, the process of teaching has to be designed in such a way that it also provides continuous offers for job oriented training. Therefore, the universities must be the melting pot for all relevant influences from other sciences, which are and will be important for the forestry practice. This does not create a new profile, but a broader one. As a result, we are no longer training largely equal graduates, but forestry graduates with very individual strengths, attains, and profiles who fit like different keys into the various locks of practical challenges. This path helped the HFR to safeguard its future, to meet high demand among young students and to be recognized as the "smallest university of excellence" in Germany.