1 November 1995 Lincoln's Degree Programmes Target Industry's New Needs

Education, like forestry itself, is a long-term investment and Lincoln University is in there for the haul, recognising that the needs of the industry and employment opportunities for graduates will continue to grow as the forestry sector's contribution to the economy expands.

As a result of institutional and legislative changes, those needs and opportunities are today related to a wider range of disciplines than in the past when personnel went into all sorts of positions from a straight forest science background. In the 1990s it's graduates with expertise in economics, business management, marketing, engineering, planning, policy analysis and resource management – in addition to possessing a basic grounding in forestry – are very much in demand.

To meet this expanding need, Lincoln University has developed a suite of industry­ related degrees most prominent of which is the Bachelor of Commerce (Forestry).

With this degree students can take up to 35 percent of their papers in forestry subjects with the balance made up from the commerce area.

The suite of Lincoln degrees also includes the University's Bachelor of Resource Studies with a forestry option, a Master of Applied Science in Agroforestry and a Master of Engineering in Forestry.

Taken together, these degrees have established a significant role for Lincoln in forestry education for New Zealand and overseas students but the University makes it clear that its intention is not to produce graduates who will compete in the technical forester employment market, or to compete with the forestry courses provided by the University of Canterbury's School of Forestry. Rather, it regards its role as complementary, filling identified gaps in forestry-related education.

"Two major reports on forestry education – one in 1987 by Probine, Grayburn and Cooper and the other in 1994 by Deloite Touche Tohmatsu – highlighted the critical importance of business and management education for the future of forestry in New Zealand and Lincoln has picked up on that point in the development of new degrees," says forestry economist Dr Hugh Bigsby of the University's Department of Economics and Marketing.

"Our B.Com (Forestry) is internationally unique. There's no other programme like it in terms of it leading to a Commerce qualification with an explicit forestry component."

The course is a three-year one in which students take specialised papers in forestry and forest business alongside commerce specialisations such as economics, marketing, accountancy, finance or business management. The forestry subjects cover topics such as silviculture, wood science, plantation business management and forest products marketing.

With the expansion of forestry activity on farms, there is an increasing interest among individuals from a range of non-forestry disciplines to learn how to effectively integrate farming and forestry activities. To meet this need Lincoln offers a Master of Applied Science (Agroforestry) degree. This is a one-year professional qualification aimed at graduates in agriculture, science, applied science, commerce or social science who are interested in integrating farming and forestry. The programme covers the principles, practices and application of agroforestry and farm forestry with a focus on integration.

A clear expression of Lincoln's commitment to agroforestry is the University's nationally significant agroforestry research trial, being conducted on a six-hectare block not far from the campus.

This trial, on which a number of the University's postgraduate students across several disciplines are working, involves Pinus radiata trees planted in 1990 with six different pasture covers underneath. Five genotypes of Pinus radiata are represented in the trial which is studying the competition processes between the trees and the under-storey pasture treatments.

A number of aspects make the Lincoln trial unique. It is the only one in New Zealand in a dry environment; it’s the only one using a range of different pasture covers; and it's the only one using different genotypes of pine tree.

Lincoln also offers a Master of Engineering (Forestry) for graduates in natural resources, forestry, civil or mechanical engineering who want to prepare for professional engineering work in the forest industry. The eight core papers cover a range of topics including silviculture, wood science, ground vehicle mechanics, forest roading, product and client management, cable systems analysis and forest transportation analysis.

In addition to the forestry-specific postgraduate degrees, Lincoln offers Masterate and Doctoral programmes in a wide range of forestry-related topics. Current research areas related to such programmes include biotechnology and genetics, tree physiology, tree nutrition and site productivity, waste disposal in forests, forest ecology, agroforestry, dendrochronology, wild animal management, forest diseases and entomology, forests and landscape values, recreation and park management, modelling and GIS systems, systems development for optimal log recovery, mechanised harvesting, timber engineering, forestry costs and social forestry.

To support all its teaching and research activity, a Forestry Consultative Group has been established at the University and this helps co-ordinate the activities of staff across the different disciplines involved. The University also has a Memorandum of Understanding with the NZ Forest Research Institute which facilitates a number of joint teaching and research programmes and there are links with Landcare Research as well.

"We're here for the long haul," says Dr Bigsby, "and we welcome the opportunity to contribute educationally to this exciting sector of the New Zealand economy."

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.