One hundred years of academic forestry education in Estonian

The year 2020 marks the centenary of the establishment of the Department of Forestry at the University of Tartu in the Republic of Estonia, and thus the cradle of forestry education and forestry science in Estonian. These hundred years have witnessed rapid development, spurts, and swings as well as standstills and changes in direction. Although the birth of the Department of Forestry was initiated by the sharp and urgent need of the young republic for educated forestry specialists, it was finally accomplished with the opening of the University of Tartu with Estonian as the language of instruction on December 1, 1919. Although the formation of the department at the newly-established national university in 1920 was a major undertaking, it laid a strong basis for systematic forestry research and experimental activities, and higher education in forestry in Estonia. The establishment of the Department of Forestry brought about a rapid growth in the number of forest officers with higher education who applied their newly acquired knowledge and energy in domestic forestry. In addition to the training of forestry specialists, the Department of Forestry started to conduct national research in forestry, which quickly reached the international arena. The generous early years of forestry education were followed by difficult years of war. Many forestry teachers and scientists either emigrated or they were arrested, or killed. The subsequent change in the state order inevitably left an irreplaceable imprint on forestry education and science. Nevertheless, fresh hopes surged in 1951, when the Estonian Academy of Agriculture was established. The revolutionary years after the restoration of independence also caused changes in academic forestry education. In recent decades, academic forestry education and science at the Estonian Agricultural University and the Estonian University of Life Sciences have been influenced by changes in society as well as general education and environmental policy. The sustainability of modern forestry education and forest science in Estonian is proven by the fact that in the hundred years, 4,048 people have obtained a forestry specialist’s diploma and a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Estonia. During this period, 83 forestry Master’s theses, 67 candidate and 56 Doctoral theses have been defended. The work done in Estonia has received high recognition – in the international ranking of universities, the Estonian University of Life Sciences ranks among the fifty best universities in the world in the field of forest science and forestry education. The increase in the number of young lecturers, the good quality of forestry education as well as the international scope of forest science in Estonia provide certainty that Estonian higher education in forestry will live, grow and flourish for the next hundred years as well.