Challenges and strategies for forest education and research in Finland

Abstract

Since 1995 the development of forest research and education has been defined more and more in the European context instead of solely on Finland basis. According to the Bologna Process in 1999, Finland committed to the joint actions to develop high forestry education through wide networking as other European countries. National Forest Programme (NTF) in 1999 by the Finnish Government aims at improving forest-related know-how through a strong innovation based on research, education and expansion of internationalisation and Europeanisation. However, research and development funding for forest sector decreased remarkably from 1995. Following NTF, research of many institutes including Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) becomes more and more customer-oriented, that is “from the markets to the forest”. There are two forest education institutes, i.e., Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki and Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu. The former works for the sustainable function of natural resources and places emphasis on the internationalisation of each academic programme and the latter places emphasis on the research of boreal forestry. The new two cycle degree programme is the one with a 3 year Bachelor and 2 year Master course. Networking between education and research institutes and between governmental and non-governmental organisations is highly recommended for the new era of education, research, and industry in forestry in addition to the changes of education contents from the utilisation of forest to sustainability of forest based on society and global demand. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.