PhD in Forestry and Wildlife Management

The Roth Gyula Doctoral School of Forestry and Wildlife Management Sciences was established in 1993. The accreditation renewal was completed in 2008 by the Hungarian Accreditation Committee, and its courses were authorized.

The school is named after Gyula Roth (1873-1961), the distinguished Hungarian professor of forestry and wildlife management. He was the head of the Department of Sylviculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture. The professor was Vice-President, then Honorary President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).

The Doctoral School has eight PhD programmes which encompass all the branches and interfaces of forestry and wildlife management sciences. The core members are from the Faculty of Forestry and the Forest Research Institute (ERTI), but a number of subjects are taught by other faculties of the University: (Faculty of Wood Sciences, Faculty of Natural and Technical Sciences), the Geodetic and Geophysical Research Institute, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS), the Hungarian Museum of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment and Water and national parks.

Education and research at the Doctoral School are pursued in the basic and applied sciences, related to forests, wildlife, and nature. It is the only doctoral school in Hungary, where all the personnel and material conditions are provided for an independent doctoral school in these areas of science.

This wide spectrum of studies makes it possible that a wide range of students are addressed and received in the PhD programmes for foresters, environmentalists, horticulturists, ecological engineers, agricultural engineers (including economic, environmental, rural development, and mechanical courses), landscape designers, veterinarians, applied zoologists, biologists, biology teachers, etc. The students have a well-equipped infrastructure, laboratories, research stations supporting field work, rich collections, institutional and central libraries. The university library is also the National Forestry Library in Hungary.

Doctoral students can visit foreign research institutions and participate in international and national research cooperation through the international connections of the institutes. The knowledge and the degree gained at the Doctoral School are a good reference when applying for leading positions in higher education institutions, research institutes, forestry, wildlife management and conservation.

The Head of the Doctoral School is Prof. Sándor Faragó, DSc (Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences). The running of the school is assisted by 9 members of the PhD Council.

Parameters of PhD programme

Details

THE ROTH GYULA DOCTORAL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES EDUCATES IN EIGHT DOCTORAL PROGRAMMES

• E1 Ecology of Forest Ecosystems and Biological Foundations of Forest Management
  Research on the composition, structure and inter-actions of forest ecosystems is part of the programme. Geographical conditions vital for forest management and the requirements for maintaining sustainable management and preserving the stability of ecosystems are identified. The main areas of research are: site conditions of forest stands, hydrology, climatic conditions, and the diversity of forest ecosystems, such as soil microbiology, physiology, botany and dendrology, species composition, structure, dynamics and inter-relations of ecosystems, and the evolutionary and genetic processes of woody plants. The doctoral programme also teaches sylviculture, production of seed material, wildlife management, forest protection (including pathology and zoology), adopting the latest experimental and research findings, related both to plantation forestry and to nature-oriented management.
• E2 Forest Resource Management
  The subject is concerned with the analyses of the stock type characteristics of forests and forestry processes in natural and financial terms, as well as the harmonisation of the legal and economic regulations with forestry interests.
  Disciplines of the forest assets management programme are: forest management planning, computer science applied to forestry, forest and hunting rights, forestry history, hunting law, economics for forest and wildlife management (forestry accounting and finance, forest and damage assessment, and sales and marketing policy).
• E3 Forest Technical Knowledge
  This PhD sub–programme provides a comprehensive, scientific approach to the technical implementation of forestry policies (mechanisation, energetics, forest utilisation, opening-up and water management) based on measurements and experiments. It deals with the improvement of mechanisation in reproductive material production, sylviculture, forest and timber utilisation, and with the development of mechanisation in energy tree plantations, the connection between mechanisation and environment protection, wood for energy production, planning, organisation and technology of forest utilisation, topics of opening-up and water management as well as with forest road construction and maintenance.
• E4 Wildlife Management
  In the doctoral programme, students deal with the forest, field and water ecosystems and their species and communities of species. The research topics embrace all the areas of open field game conservation and management and all the fields of hunting, as well as all the related sciences such as the kennel, gun ballistics, trophy assessment, wildlife health, game management in closure, wildlife forage ground and game feeding, economics and history of the science.
• E5 Nature Conservation
  The Nature Conservation course aims at the implementation of a scientific programme that monitors international strategies addressing natural challenges of global issues and their effective application to Hungary. The programme encourages nature-conscious development and experiments in the national conservation practice, while strengthening scientific grounds of professional and political efforts. It will involve a talented new generation in the innovative research. It aims to educate experts who are not only professionals, receptive to theory, but experts with positive values of life and healthy ecosystems.
• E6 Geoinformatics 
  The rapid development of GIS, the expansion of satellite monitoring and positioning methods led to the initiation of a separate Geoinformatics programme at the Doctoral School. It offers courses and research opportunities in the field of land management, surveying and geoinformatics, mainly related to agricultural management and land use, including the application of the modern technical tools of thematic modelling, remote sensing and mapping.
• E7 Forest and Environmental Pedagogy
  Environmental pedagogy is a multidisciplinary field of study, which prepares students with a comprehensive background in natural and social sciences to teach environment consciousness and to develop related activities. The aim of study and research is to develop educational methodology and practice at every level of public education, from kindergarten to higher education, and thus enhance environment consciousness through methods fitting the age of pupils and students.