Comparison of Forest Engineering Students’ Attitudes towards Their Education and Future Jobs: Case Results from Turkey

Forestry is a complex multidimensional discipline that implies a broad job description and task variety for forest engineers. Thus, the scope of professional forestry education is expanding and diversifying. It is essential to determine the students’ attitudes towards their education and future jobs to develop focused solutions in forestry education. In this context, the present study aims to analyze the attitudes of forest engineering students towards their education and future jobs. This study evaluated and compared the students’ attitudes over a 10-year period through questionnaires administered to senior forest engineering students of the Faculty of Forestry at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa (IUC). It was revealed that, during job selection, non-job factors (39.5%) were nearly as influential as job-related factors (53.7%). Moreover, students’ career plans were based mainly on working in public institutions (41.4%) and simply doing their job (78.1%). The results showed that students’ views on education have improved over time; however, they have doubts about their readiness to succeed in their careers (M = 3.41) and the adequacy of their knowledge and experience level (M = 2.95). Their attitudes on their future job were not wholly positive: They have doubts about finding a job (M = 2.90), having satisfactory working conditions (M = 3.38), and income (M = 3.57). The results of this study can support decision-making in forest education and human resources in forestry.

Periodical Name Changes in the Higher Education Forestry Institutions of Turkey

Forestry higher education has been offered since 1857. This study investigates the alterations made in the tertiary forestry institution names in Turkey under three periods: (1) between the years 1857 and 1934, (2) between the years 1945 and 1948, and (3) between the years 2006 and 2018. The Faculty of Forestry was under the Ministry of Mining during the first period, which later became a unit under the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1934, during the Republican period, it became a subdivision of Ankara Yüksek Ziraat Enstitüsü (Ankara Institute of Advanced Agriculture, YZE). All those changes in this period improved the reputation of the institution and the occupation. In the second period, tertiary-level forestry education was separated from YZE and incorporated into Istanbul University. The faculty members and the councils of the Faculty of Forestry were directly involved in the decision-making processes required by this change. However, the third period is marked by regulations that were made without involving any forestry education institutions and professionals. Due to the lack of a clear higher education policy, the names of institutions have not been preserved and the formation of an academic tradition in the forestry institutions has been delayed.

PRIORITIES AND QUALITY OF UNIVERSITY FORESTRY EDUCATION UNDER CONDITIONS OF FORESTRY LEGISLATION AND FOREST MANAGEMENT REFORMS IN RUSSIA

В настоящее время в лесной отрасли экономики России существует много проблем. Но одной из важнейших социальных проблем страны и отрасли является падение престижа лесных профессий, приведшее к прогрессирующему дефициту и острой нехватке высококвалифицированных специалистов для всех уровней управления лесами, желающих посвятить свою деятельность на благо российского леса. Причин много, и объективных, и субъективных. Одна их них — продолжающееся более 14 лет реформирование лесного законодательства и системы управления лесами, определяющее низкую эффективность всей лесной отрасли. Вторая — низкий уровень заработной платы, предопределяющий нестабильность занятости трудовых ресурсов и, как следствие этого, высокую текучесть кадров. Для улучшения сложившейся ситуации в системе подготовки кадров для лесного хозяйства следует разработать и ввести в действие единую систему оценки качества знаний студентов в форме ежегодного электронного тестирования знаний по изученным дисциплинам базовой части примерного Учебного плана по направлению подготовки «Лесное дело». Для укрепления связей лесных вузов с производством и коренного перелома в трудоустройстве выпускников, обучавшихся на бюджетной основе, необходимо возродить практику их предварительного распределения по заявкам предприятий отрасли. Необходимо также возродить существовавшее ранее, обязательное (не реже одного раза в 5 лет) повышение квалификации специалистов, в том числе кадрового резерва, лесничеств, НИИ, других организаций, подведомственных Министерству природных ресурсов и экологии РФ и Федеральному агентству лесного хозяйства

Multilateral forestry research and tertiary forestry education for development: reflections on progress since the 1970s

The contemporary institutional landscapes for multilateral forestry research and tertiary forestry education for development were shaped largely in the last three decades of the 20 th century. Some limitations of largely post-colonial arrangements in the 1970s for forestry research for development were addressed by the establishment of CIFOR and incorporation of ICRAF into the CGIAR system in the early 1990s, following international processes in which FAO, IUFRO and the World Bank played central roles. Contemporaneously, tertiary forestry education evolved and internationalised in conjunction with that sector more generally. Institutional arrangements for multilateral forestry research are now undergoing another phase of change, as key actors seek more impact without more investment. Traditional models of tertiary forestry education for development are similarly challenged by ongoing changes in higher education systems. Both forestry research and education need now to address the profound challenges and potential opportunities associated with major forces such as ongoing forest loss and degradation, climate change, economic globalisation, and social and demographic change. In parallel, the value of evidence-based policy and practice, and of multilateralism, are being challenged by resurgent political populism and nationalism. Together, these contexts suggest that those engaged in forestry research and education for development will need to be politically and institutionally astute, and proactive and strategic, in catalysing and pursuing opportunities; and that various collaborative models, both nationally and internationally, will remain important vehicles for sharing resources, commanding the attention of decision-makers, and realising development impacts.