5th Asia Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism Meeting
March 28th 2018
As the Chair of the Asia Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism (AP-FECM), the Faculty hosted the fifth Meeting of AP-FECM in Beijing, China in March 2018. The event was centered on the theme of Globalization of Higher Forestry Education in a Digital Era. This theme is crucial for development and innovation of higher forestry education as it presents new opportunities to improve forestry education at both regional and global levels. With over 35 international influential speakers and 200 participants, the conference was a huge success in gathering these leading minds and in exchanging knowledge as well as shared resources in forestry education. The meeting also formally inaugurated phase 2 of the Sustainable Forest Management online education which will continue to be visionary in its multi-universities collaboration and open access format.
Happy 10th Anniversary – Celebration of the UBC-China Forestry Transfer Programs
May 31st 2018
The undergraduate transfer programs (also referred to as “2+2”/”3+2” programs) have been one of the most successful collaborations between UBC and the Chinese forestry universities. These transfer programs involve 2 or 3 years of post-secondary education in China followed by program completion at UBC. The 10th Anniversary Celebration of UBC-China Forestry Transfer Programs has marked a milestone in the history of UBC Forestry’s international cooperation in higher forestry education.
It was the first time that Chinese partner universities had been represented at the UBC Vancouver graduation ceremony. Following the graduation ceremony, a special reception was hosted by Dean John Innes in the Forest Sciences Centre. Over 50 people attended the event, including representatives from UBC’s Office of the Vice President, the Consulate General of China, Chinese partner universities and UBC’s Admission Office. UBC Forestry faculty members and staff, alumni and Class of 2018 graduates also joined in the celebration.
The Faculty will continue to support these joint programs with Chinese forestry universities and hopes to apply this excellent model to other universities in the Asia Pacific region.
Forestry Online Course Development Workshop
July 30 to August 3 2018
Building upon the success of phase I, the project is entering its second phase that will give priority to developing new online courses on tropical forest management and upgrade the existing courses. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to create credential programs with both a Certificate and a Master’s degree, utilizing all online courses developed in the first and second phase.
To support this transition, the Forestry Online Course Development Workshop took place on July 30 to August 3 2018 at the University of British Columbia with the aim to cover many important topics that would help course development teams to create valuable and meaningful online courses. The workshop was built upon the essential need for participants to understand the broader curriculum goals of the online course program, as well as to help develop the curriculum map for all the courses while incorporating best practices for online learning in coordination with UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology – from teaching and learning approaches to the selection of learning technologies.
Visiting scholars from Chinese partner universities to attend FRST 350 field course
September 2018
UBC Forestry has been dedicated to helping our partner universities to build capacity in teaching. A field course for partner universities is one of initiatives to reach this goal. In September 2018, instructors and young faculty members from partner universities were invited to attend the FRST350 field course (an 8-day field trip course for the third-year students at UBC Forestry) in order to explore the western university’s teaching philosophy and practices in forestry. Faculty members and instructors from partner universities shared ideas with Dr. Patrick Culbert (the primary instructor who designed this course) on the differences of curriculum and field course operation between UBC Forestry and Chinese forestry universities. This field course allowed Chinese instructors and young faculty members to bring back knowledge that they obtained from the course and develop similar field course at home universities for 3+2/2+2 transfer students.
Delegation of the National Forest & Grassland Administration China
September 22 2018
A high-level ministerial delegation visited Canada and UBC with discussion of future cooperation between UBC (Faculty of Forestry in particular) and the NFGA in the area of natural resources management, conservation and research. Since 2008, UBC Faculty of Forestry has established a strong partnership with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration with its 11 departments and affiliated agencies (including Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management – APFNet, China Green Carbon Foundation – CGCF, International Center for Bamboo and Rattan -ICBR, Urban Forest Research Center, Sciences Survey Planning and Design Institute). A number of the cooperation involves research, education program and professional capacity building in sustainable forest management, climate change, carbon, bamboo and rattan resources, urban forestry, remote sensing, and forest fire protection.
Group training program for forestry delegation from Fujian Province
September 17 -30 2018
A provincial ministerial delegation from Fujian, China, visited Canada to get an overview of national parks in Canada for two weeks. UBC Forestry offered a week of courses covering topics such as global conservation and forestry protection problems, watershed and wildlife conservation, policy of national parks in Canada, urban forestry and parks management, and endangered species and biodiversity conservation. The delegation also visited Stanley Park, UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest, and Banff National Park to explore Canadian national parks’ overall planning and special planning, application of information technology in national parks, and protection and inheritance of resources conservation in national parks. This program facilitated communication between Chinese government officials and experts of Canadian national parks. The current development in national parks of both countries and experiences in park management were fully discussed.
Mid-Autumn Festival event for new coming 2+2/3+2 program students
September 24 2018
The annual Mid-Autumn Festival event for new coming 2+2/3+2 transfer students took place on September 24th. This event, as it is the first big traditional Chinese festival after students’ arrival, aimed to alleviate their homesick, enrich their social circles, and allow them to learn from the senior students’ shared experiences. Approximately 60 new transfer students attended this year’s event. Students originated from different partner universities and programs were mixed in groups to participate in ice-breaking games and activities. Senior students such as Ms. Xinke Yu, Mr. Jie (Adam) Wu, and Mr. Yangqian Qi were invited to share their study and life experiences with the new students. Visiting scholars from Chinese forestry universities were also invited to join the celebration and to share their extraordinary academic experience with new students. The diversification of attendees provided great opportunities for program students to connect with brilliant minds from different backgrounds.