Degree academic, scientific and professional interest
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%
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.
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.
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)
Consult Procedures used
In compliance with the current regulation for the accreditation of any university degree (RD 1393/2007, of October 29, 2007), the University School of Forestry Engineering took part in the call of the Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University (ACSUG) to design and draft a Quality Guarantee System (QGS) within the Programme FIDES AUDIT.
In collaboration with the Quality Area of the University of Vigo, the Quality Committee of the School drafted a documentary proposal of the QGS. To design this educational offer the procedure PE03 of the School’s Quality Guarantee System was followed.
The centre Management Team decided to elaborate, firstly a draft for the study plan adapted to the European Higher Education Area, commend this duty to the Quality Committee of the School in collaboration with the Teaching Quality Area of the University in order to provide a starting point to work with the whole teaching staff of the School.
The proposals received were evaluated in order to check its adaptation to both considerations derived from the White Book for the Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural and Forestry Engineering, and the Annex I of the Royal Decree 1393/2007, of October 29, which establishes the organisation for official university degree programmes firstly and the BOE of February 2009 lastly, as in this edition of the BOE which will definitely publish the establishment of requirements to some sections on the Annex I of the Royal Decree 1393/2007 of October 29.
Within the Centre’s Quality Guarantee System Manual establishes methodologies for the quality guarantee system in the design of the study plans, showing how the centre should define, review and keep continuously updated the Objectives established in the Study Plan.
The Committee responsible for the Degree design, in order to ensure a correct formulation of the objectives checked that these:
- Fulfil the needs of the stakeholders (students and employers, mainly)
- Are correctly formulated
- Are realistic, measurable and coherent with the teaching programming, planning and development taking into account the available material and human resources
- Are communicated to the interest groups to completely know
- Are analysed and reviewed for their continuous adequacy
For this process the statutes of the University of Vigo and the Regulation of the University of Vigo for the implementation of Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees were taken into account.
The initial draft of the study plan and this report were performed by the Centre’s Quality Committee, in charge of the initial works and management: consult the teaching staff, the areas, the departments and other centres to elaborate the first two drafts.
The Verification Report of the Bachelor’s Degree and the Study Plan were passed on by the Degree Board Meeting of July 30, 2009, unanimously, in the Committee of Academic Planning and Teaching meeting of the 21/10/2009; in the Social Board of 28/10/2009, and in the Governing Board of 29/10/2009.
Once the ANECA gave the relevant considerations and recommendations, the Degree Board accepted those completely and the modifications and adaptations carried out were accepted in meeting on May 21, 2010.
During the preparation of the Study Plan Report, the documentation developed by the Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University System (ACSUG) on researches on employability of university graduated in Galicia was consulted. Also documentation published by various agencies and institutions on the forestry, timber and paper pulp industry in Galicia condition were consulted. To design this degree it was extremely important the Royal Decree 1393/2007, of October 29, which establishes the organisation for official university degree programmes and the LOMLOU (Organic Law Amending the Organic Law of Universities).
In addition, the committee designed a survey which was sent to different companies in order to know their point of view on the competences that a Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry Engineering student should develop for a successful professional future. The results obtained in these surveys weren’t much different of the ones obtained in published wider researches.
Also surveys among the graduated students were made in order to know their employment status and the degree of adjustment to the professional market. In this way we could establish which parameters of the current Study Plans should be kept and which contribute less and should be improved.
Regarding the external consult procedures to be developed in the future, the following actuations are designed:
- Conducting surveys to employers from the forestry sector, including big companies like NORFOR-ENCE, public administration, research centres like LOURIZÁN, CIS MADEIRA and SMEs. Fundamentally, those which were included in the computer application for employers which has been working for 7 years and which enables direct contact among companies from the field and graduated students.
- These surveys will be performed every two years, to have undated data and fix the identified malfunctioning.
- On the other hand, the consultations to the Professional Bodies will be performed periodically to understand the opinions of the professional collective.