Euroforester MSc with a major in Forest Science

Forestry is changing quickly. Euroforester is a global education environment where students from around the world meet, share knowledge and discuss differences in forestry and culture. Students are prepared to work in an international environment with broad perspectives on issues in forestry and beyond. 

Euroforester is an MSc programme at SLU's Alnarp campus focusing on forests and forestry in the Baltic Sea region and central Europe. The education is targeted to an international student audience and delivered by a diverse teacher team. The programme integrates many subjects giving students an in-depth knowledge and transferrable skills, preparing them for a career in the international forest sector. 

While it focuses on the Baltic and central Europe, the programme addresses issues of worldwide importance, making it relevant to students everywhere. Because forest management has changed fundamentally in recent years, instruction takes a holistic view, much wider than mere production and profit. 

The Euroforester programme has been developed in cooperation between 14 forest faculties in Europe. With guidance provided by an international research and teaching team, Euroforester courses include numerous study trips in Sweden and abroad. 

As shown by our graduate surveys, Euroforester graduates are competitive in the job market. After graduation you will have knowledge and skills for variety of jobs such as specialist or advisor in a governmental authority, municipality or forestry company, or to proceed with an academic career as PhD student.

Euroforester focuses on sustainable forestry in the Baltic Sea region – the hub of European forest resources. Countries in the region share comparable natural conditions, but vary markedly in forestry practices and traditions. This thereby provides an excellent setting for international studies in forest management. In addition, students also form their own international network with their peers and the international teacher team, further aiding their acquisition of up-to-date knowledge and wide perspective. For Swedish students from Umeå, Euroforester also appeals by offering extensive knowledge in the management of forests within the conditions of southern Sweden.

The program starts with a one-year course package with emphases on silviculture, ecology, planning and policy.

Conifer dominated forestry is the focus of the 1st course, for which the influence of silviculture on forest development is examined in depth at the stand level.

The 2nd course scales up to the estate level, addressing the principles and practices of sustainable forest management. Students prepare long-term forest management plans for a large estate in the region.

The 3rd course addresses forest policy at national, regional and global levels. A great deal of attention is given to comparative policy analyses among the home countries of the participating students.

The ecology and usage of broadleaved forests are the themes in the 4th course. The impact of modern forestry on biodiversity is discussed together with strategies for preserving a rich flora and fauna within production forests.  During the second year students work with their Master’s thesis and attend elective courses at any partner faculties. Students who stay on the Alnarp campus can specialise in advanced silviculture in temporal and in tropical forests. In many cases, the Master thesis is conducted in co-operation with other faculties, with supervisors sourced from more than one country.

Want to know more? You can read the syllabus at the student web.

Euroforester graduates are very competitive in the job market. Within a few years of graduation many are already employed in important positions with a variety of organisations, ranging from the forest owner associations in Sweden, to Greenpeace in Russia, to multinational companies operating worldwide. Euroforesters actively maintain their international network of peers through graduate conferences held every 3 years that rotate among the participating countries.