There has never been a more exciting time to enter Forestry as a profession. Our degrees will prepare you for the challenge of managing forests for the many benefits they provide, at a time of global environmental change. Forests, vital to the global ecosystem, cover 30% of the world’s land area. Forestry is concerned with the understanding and sustainable management of these forests for the benefit of Society.

This degree provides you with the opportunity to gain an undergraduate Master’s degree, giving you a unique opportunity for a much more extensive research dissertation, as well as access to advanced MSc-level modules. This degree provides students with the skills, expertise and knowledge required for their sustainable management. It will prepare you for the challenge of managing forests for the many benefits they provide, at a time of global environmental change. As the longest standing Forestry department in the UK, Bangor University is world-renowned for it’s teaching and research of this subject.

The MFor degree is accredited by the Institute of Chartered Foresters and gives partial fulfilment of Professional Membership Entry. We will also pay for your first year’s student membership to the Chartered Institute of Foresters. Located in beautiful North Wales, you will enjoy learning through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops and practicals, as well as site visits to a diverse range of woodlands, forests and other habitats.

We run week long field courses in every year of this degree, enabling you to spend time outside honing your site observation and data collection skills from the very start of the degree. Our extensive local, national and international networks and our active research programmes allow us to deliver high quality teaching which addresses cutting-edge issues. We work closely with, and introduce our students to, organisations such as Natural Resources Wales, Forestry Commission, Woodland Trust, Forest Research, the Institute of Chartered Foresters, Tilhill Forestry, Pryor and Rickett Silviculture and many others.

We own 82 hectares of woodland, many semi natural, which are used for teaching, student projects and research. The University farm is also host to a range of forestry and land-use research experiments that provide excellent learning resources.

Our extensive local, national and international networks and our active research programmes allow us to deliver high quality teaching which addresses cutting-edge issues, . We work closely with, and introduce our students to, organisations such as Natural Resources Wales, Forestry Commission, Woodland Trust, Forest Research, the Institute of Chartered Foresters, Tilhill Forestry, Pryor and Rickett Silviculture and many others.

Our students and academic staff are active collaborators with international organisation such as the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center, Costa Rica (CATIE), the Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia (CIFOR), the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA).

Why choose Bangor University for this course?

• We have been teaching forestry at Bangor for more than 110 years and were the first university to offer Forestry degrees.
• We have a comprehensive library collection in Bangor, a forestry experimental area nearby, and are within easy travelling distance of public and privately-owned forests.
• We own 82 ha of woodland, many semi natural.
• Week-long field trips.
• Opportunities to study abroad.
• We pay for student membership of the Institute of Chartered Foresters.

This MFor Forestry degree enables you to study through a range of lectures, tutorials, seminars and fieldwork. These are also significant opportunities to develop an in-depth and ambitious M-level research dissertation. Optional modules in the final year allow you to expand your studies into new areas or develop specialisms that interest you.

What will you study on this course?

Years 1 and 2

The first year provides an introduction to the ecological, economic and environmental principles on which forestry is based. In the second year you will develop your understanding of these principles and apply them to forestry practice. Subjects studied during the first two years include tree and wood identification, site assessment, tree measurement, silviculture and inventory, forest health, forest management and geographical information systems. By the end of the second year you will have acquired the knowledge and understanding needed for a sandwich placement year, should you wish to do one.

Year 3

In the third year, you will integrate the knowledge that you have acquired in the first two years to write a management plan for a landscape featuring significant areas of woodland, forest and other habitats. Modules in forest ecology, forest ecosystems, environmental issues, renewable energy, and advanced GIS and remote sensing enable you to develop subject specific skills and expertise further. You can also choose to go on a week-long field course in Tenerife. A module on research planning also enables you to continue refining and developing your M-level dissertation: this is your independent research projection a topic that interests you, under the supervision of academic staff.

Year 4

In your final year you can choose from a range of advanced specialist modules, such as agroforestry, forest ecology and resources, natural resource management or business planning.

Employers are always looking for forestry graduates who are self-motivated and enjoy working with people. A high proportion of our graduates find a forestry-related job within six months of graduation, and are employed by public, private and non-governmental organisations both in the UK and overseas. Our unique history, reputation and teaching excellence makes Bangor Forestry graduates highly employable.

The MFor Forestry programme enables graduates to demonstrate to employers that they have achieved all the requirements of the long-established BSc Forestry programme as well as prove that they have M-level expertise and ability.

As well as offering excellent employability opportunities in a wide range of forestry and related professions, the MFor Forestry programme is well placed for students who are keen to go into a research career, as it provides students with a unique opportunity to carry out in-depth Master’s level research.

Forestry is concerned with the understanding and sustainable management of forests for the benefit of society. Our degrees focus on the principles of biological conservation, forest ecology and forest ecosystem function, the practice of conservation, and the ways in which forests can be managed to meet conservation objectives.