Piloting of Courses Developed under the Erasmus+ ForestPost Project Is Underway at NUBiP of Ukraine

The piloting of English-language courses developed under the Erasmus+ project ForestPost, “Modernizing master programs to support forest sector transformation towards Ukraine’s post-war green rebuilding” (No. 101179074), is underway at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. The courses are being piloted at autumn schools for Master’s students in specialities H4 “Forestry” and G14 “Wood-Processing and Furniture Technologies”. The schools are hosted by the Institute of Forestry and Landscape-Park Management in accordance with the Rector’s order. The first of them, “Forests and Climate Change”, began on 28 September and will run until 25 October 2026 in a blended format, both on-site and online.

The school serves as a pilot launch of four new English-language courses from the first thematic block of the project:

• Close-to-Nature and Climate-Smart Silviculture. Lecturer: O. SOSHENSKYI.

• Landscape Fires: Science, Policy and Management. Lecturer: S. ZIBTSEV.

• Forest Ecosystem Services. Lecturers: R. VASYLYSHYN, Ye. KHAN.

• Forest Phytomass Estimation by Ground and Remote Methods. Lecturers: V. MYRONIUK, A. TERENTIEV.

The lecturers presented to students the content of the courses, practical assignments and training at enterprises and institutions of the sector. At least 27% of the hours of each course are devoted to such training. The field module will take place on 14–16 October at the Boyarka Forest Research Station of NUBiP of Ukraine.

“Landscape Fires: Science, Policy and Management” covers fire ecology, public policy, integrated fire management, and the challenges of climate change and war. The course was presented by Serhiy ZIBTSEV, Professor of the Department of Silviculture.

“Forest Ecosystem Services” was presented by Roman VASYLYSHYN, Director of the Educational and Research Institute of Forestry and Landscape-Park Management, and Yevhenii KHAN, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Forest Inventory and Forest Management. The course addresses classifications of ecosystem services, their biophysical and economic assessment, payments for ecosystem services, and landscape restoration.

“Close-to-Nature and Climate-Smart Silviculture” focuses on converting even-aged stands into mixed, uneven-aged ones, natural regeneration, the marteloscope and VR tools. The course was presented by Oleksandr SOSHENSKYI.

“Forest Phytomass Estimation by Ground and Remote Methods” was presented by Viktor MYRONIUK, Head of the Department of Forest Inventory and Forest Management, and Andrii TERENTIEV, Associate Professor of the same department. In this course, students study field methods and modeling of phytomass, Earth observation data, vegetation indices and carbon sequestration.

Each course is worth 3 ECTS credits and is supported by a syllabus, lecture notes and methodological guidelines for practical classes. Participants who successfully complete the school will receive 12 ECTS credits and a certificate. Lecturers from the consortium’s partner universities are involved in teaching: Eberswalde University of Sustainable Development (Germany), Transilvania University of Brașov (Romania) and the University of Valladolid (Spain).

The main purpose of piloting is to gather feedback from those for whom the courses were created. Students and lecturers complete a feedback form assessing the content, workload, practical component and English-language format of the courses. The courses have already undergone internal and external review. They will now be refined based on student feedback and subsequently introduced into the university’s master programs.

The autumn school is part of large-scale work on updating master programs. In total, the project has developed 12 new courses in three thematic blocks. The project is coordinated by the National University of Forestry of Ukraine. The partners are NUBiP of Ukraine, the State Biotechnological University, the universities of Eberswalde, Brașov and Valladolid, as well as 33 associated partners from the forestry and wood-processing sector.

Piloting will continue at two more autumn schools:

• “Circular Forest-based Economics and Business”, 12 October – 8 November 2026;

• “Wooden Technologies for Green Rebuilding of Ukraine”, 26 October – 22 November 2026.

Learn more about the project: https://forestpost.org/

Follow the progress of the autumn school and the news

of the ForestPost project. There is much more to come!

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.