PhD in Forestry and Wildlife Management Sciences - Roth Gyula Doctoral School University of Sopron

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 Ph.D. programs that 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 is addressed and received in the Ph.D. programs 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 fieldwork, rich collections, and 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 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.

The Roth Gyula doctoral school of forestry and wildlife management sciences educates in eight doctoral programs

• E1 Ecology and Diversity of Forest Ecosystems

Research on the composition, structure, and interactions of forest ecosystems is part of the program. 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.

• E2 Biological Basis of Forest Management

The doctoral program teaches sylviculture, production of seed material, wildlife management, and forest protection (including pathology and zoology), adopting the latest experimental and research findings, related both to plantation forestry and to nature-oriented management.

• E3 Forest Assets 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 harmonization of the legal and economic regulations with forestry interests.

Disciplines of the forest assets management program 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).

• E4 Forest Technology

This Ph.D. sub–program provides a comprehensive, scientific approach to the technical implementation of forestry policies (mechanization, energetics, forest utilization, opening-up and water management) based on measurements and experiments. It deals with the improvement of mechanization in reproductive material production, sylviculture, forest and timber utilization, and with the development of mechanization in energy tree plantations, the connection between mechanization and environment protection, wood for energy production, planning, organization and technology of forest utilization, topics of opening-up and water management as well as with forest road construction and maintenance.

• E5 Wildlife Management

In the doctoral program, 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 the closure, wildlife forage ground and game feeding, economics and history of the science.

• E6 Nature Conservation

The Nature Conservation course aims at the implementation of a scientific program that monitors international strategies addressing natural challenges of global issues and their effective application to Hungary. The program encourages nature-conscious development and experiments in the national conservation practice while strengthening the scientific grounds of professional and political efforts. It will involve a talented new generation in 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.

• E7 Geoinformatics Program

The rapid development of GIS, the expansion of satellite monitoring and positioning methods led to the initiation of a separate Geoinformatics program 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 modeling, remote sensing and mapping.

• E8 Forest and Environmental Pedagogy Program

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 environmental consciousness through methods fitting the age of pupils and students.