Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry Engineering

Presentation

The current job of Technical Forestry Engineer arises from the job as Specialist in Forests, which arises from Forest Assistants, which, for a short time, where also called Forest Auxiliary Staff.

Until the second half of the past century there was no degree on Forestry Engineering and therefore there was no degree on Technical Forestry Engineer, performing their duties a political-administrative organisation, called Forest Commissioners and Delegates.

The degree was created to fulfil the State’s needs, similarly to other Technical scales of different services of it. The activities in other public or private and particular entities were performed by other helpers of the State bodied, which stayed as supernumeraries, surpluses, etc.

Based on the historical development of the degree and on the Galician experience in the self-management of the forest and the found gaps, on 1992 in Pontevedra the Technical Forestry Engineering degree was launched, with the specialities in Forestry Industry within the University of Vigo.

Lastly, it has been noted that the demand and admission of students in the Centre are similar, as the places offered are completely taken.

In the last years different far-reaching surveys on the satisfaction of different stockholders of the Technical Forestry Engineering regarding the educational process of the Technical Forestry Engineers graduated in the University School of Forestry Engineering of Pontevendra, finding the following percentages: Students 59%, Teaching Staff 69%, ASS 63%, Graduated students 56%, Entrepreneurials 67%

Main Objective

The Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry Engineering enables to work as a Technical Forestry Engineering, which is currently regulated by:

• Law 12/1986 of April 1 (BOE no. 79 of 2/4/86), which establishes the professional duties of Architects and Technical Engineers
• Law 33/1992 which modifies the Law 12/1986, establishing full attributions of the Technical Forestry Engineers (among others) in the field of their respective specialities for the Projects, Studies and Reports Drafting and other analogous works, as well as the Direction of Works and all class of Industries, Exploitations and Activities own of his speciality
• Royal Decree 2220/1992 of July 9, which modifies the Decree 2095/1971 which regulates the professional duties and competences of the Technical Forestry Specialist Engineers
• Forestry Law 43/2003, of November 21
• Forestry Regulation (Decree 485/1962 of February 22)
• Royal Decree 2329/1979, of September 14, which establishes the Regulation to apply the Law 87/1978, of December 28
• Law on Building Ordinances (Law 38/1999, of November 5)
• Royal Decree 1609/1978, of May 12, which determines that the Technical Forestry Engineers in the field of Public Finance is able to Inspection, Check, Research, Value, Appraisal, Advice, Manage, Evaluate and Inform on the immovable taxes and goods
• Order CIN/324/2009, of February 9, which establishes the requirements to verify the official university degrees which enable to work as a Technical Forestry Engineer.

Competencies

Qualification

One of the main external referents was the White Book for the Bachelor’s Degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Technical Forestry Engineering, drafted by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation.

Related with this White Book on March 6, 2009, the agreements of the Agro-forestry Branch Degree Directors Conference in Madrid were published. Based on this document and on the ministry order from the Ministry of Science and Innovation linked to the Royal Decree 1393/2007, of October, 2007, which establishes the organisation for official university degree programmes the drafting on the new study plan started. The results of this work were afterwards adapted to the contents of the BOE on February 19, 2009, which establishes the requirements according to the Annex I of the Royal Decree 1393/2007, of October 29, regarding the current report to request the verification of the official degree. The agreements of the Directors Conference provide a clear scheme for the classification in modules, the distribution of competences, the creation of new subjects and the adaptation of existing subjects to new teaching methodologies.

The documentation provided by the Project Tuning Educational Structures in Europe and their recommendations for the pedagogical formulations, the credits distribution and the methodological adaptation to design, develop, apply and evaluate the study plans for each of the adapting process to the European Higher Education Area and the Bologna Declaration were taken into account, as well as the reports already passed from other degrees related with engineering, in order to unify formats and clarify concepts. Among those, the Verification Report of the Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, the Verification Report of the Bachelor’s Degree in Food Science and Technology and the Verification Report of the Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering.

To write the current report the report on the only degree in the branch of Engineering and Architecture being taught in the University of Vigo was consulted.

Structure and Distribution of Credits

Courses

• By term
• By year

Mobility

The University School of Forestry Engineering in Pontevedra has signed bilateral agreements within the frame of the Erasmus Programme with different European universities. These universities were selected due to their study plans and the enrichment that the participation on them would mean for the students. This is why the references provided by these universities were also a key element in the adaptation to the EHEA process:

• University of Joensuu (Finland)
• University Mendel of Brno (Czech Republic)
• Higher Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (Portugal)
• Fachhochschule Eberswalde (Germany)
• Fachhochschule Rosenheim (Germany)
• Fachhochschule Salzburg (Austria)