2nd year in Copenhagen

Academics

Having the SUTROFOR experience in any of the consortium seems to offer some variations of excitements. What is peculiar to them all, is that the experiences are worthwhile. Experiences that would stick around for a long while....

Depending on individual preferences, academics is blissful in Copenhagen. Haha! You will get to learn stuffs related to the socio-economic part of forestry in the developing countries. A little in forest politics, rural livelihood studies and research planning (there are others of course!) and the teachers are up to the tasks.

We (the students in Copenhagen) are all afforded a substantial level of freedom to engage in your academic activities at your own pace, like class attendance is not a must even though you are obliged to partake in all assessment activities to pass a module. Yeah, you may be morally inclined to inform a teacher that you would be away from a class but at the same time, you don’t have to get bored to death in a class because you must attend (Just saying ;))

Living and moving around

If you are coming to Copenhagen, get a bike!

Finding your way in Copenhagen, as a newcomer is the easiest in the world! (I wished!) I strongly advice, you have a device with a friendly map. This could save you some hours of cycling in circles! This may be a reason why the city is flooded with I-phone human drones. Housing may be an issue. At one time or the other, you will wish you could teleport a whole building from your home country because of the housing situation which is plagued by high renting costs and unavailability. You are coming to Copenhagen? Make housing your first worry, apply for housing early enough and maybe you would have better days than those who would, by circumstances, be forced to move from one house to the other in search of better offers. To summarize housing situations in Copenhagen, ‘time and chances happen to them all!’

The faculty of science where you would have most of your lectures is located in a spot which will LIKELY require you to bike for 10-15 minutes to classes. Except for the very few who live closer to the faculty. This selected lucky few would have done either of these; pay high or start house scouting early.

The city is beautiful. Copenhageners are friendly. You don’t have to struggle with getting lost on few occasions. You will always get help! An average Copenhagener speaks English, so when you are stuck in front of a Danish-inclined ATM machine, the fella adjacent to you will help with a broad smile!

If you have some free time (I earnestly wish you good luck with that!), there are lots of attractions you would love to see, and Sweden may just be 15minutes away by Train.

As I struggle to restrain myself from writing more, I will just tell you this: Coming to Copenhagen promises to be SUTROFOR-ful! If you are going to be a second year student, you sure know what I’m talking about already ;). If you are coming for your first year, well, there is only one way of finding out for sure..COME!

If you have specific questions, feel free to shoot an email

adeyeye(_)yemi[at]yahoo[dot]com

Yemi Adeyeye.

My life in Padua… by Spartak

Hello everybody, hope your studies are going well so far and you are enjoying.

Well, there are many things that I can say about my experience here in Padua, but I will try to be as concise as possible by mentioning some of the key elements that I think are important to be taken into account for those who want to come here for their second year.

The University, in terms of quality of education it is very good and if I am not wrong it is one of the most known in Italy. The campus it is really nice, and all the people are kind and will try to help you for everything you need. Our studies have been going for five months so far, starting on October until the middle of January we have been having classes and after that the exams. Regarding the courses, I would suggest having a look on the SUTROFOR website http://sutrofor.eu/universities/padova/second_year/ , here you will find more detailed information for all you need. So you will have an idea in advance what you are going to do. 

Currently here in Padua we are only two SUTROFOR students and more or less it used to be the same number also in the previous years (small classes). However, this year the Department has find a solution to this issue, and all the five courses have been done together with other students from other programs (MEDFOR, SUFONAMA and FES). 

Another issue that I would like to mention is related to the possible thesis topics, there are plenty of possibilities and during the classes all professors are going to present many thesis topics, and you will have time to think and to discuss with them. There are many opportunities for desk- based topics and also for going for field work in different developing tropical countries, it is up to you to decide in the end, and this related also to you aim and background.

In the end I would like to say that life in Padua it is very nice. The city it is very nice, people are very kind and social, many nice things to see and visit in the city, and also from here you have the chances to go and visit other cities that are near to Padua like Venice. In addition, I am sure that all of you have heard about Italian food, I can say only came and taste it. In general, I like to be here and I would recommend the others too. In case someone needs more detailed information about everything what happen here, please contact me.

One last thing, I would like also to apologize for the inconvenience with my previews post. It has a long story behind and still I am not so clear how that post ended there, my apologies.

Cheers,

Spartak

Dresden... By Maria

The Technical University of Dresden is well-known for its contribution to forest management science. The SUTROFOR specialization in the second year was for me very basic and general. Many lectures were not really focus in the tropics (but I think this is problem in all the universities) and the content and teaching methodology of the class was rather old. However, it should be considered, that I’m a forestry bachelor, maybe someone with other background could find the topics not so basics.  

In relationship to the thesis, the university has many contacts with professionals around the world. But currently, they only have the “Welcome to Africa” project in Ethiopia, Sudan and others. Anyone interested can do their thesis in the framework of this project, but unfortunately there is not funding available. The university also has good connections with universities of Bolivia and Peru.

The city of Dresden and Tharant (where the forestry faculty is located) are both beautiful places. Dresden is good for social life; the transportation system is very efficient; the city is a mixture of old and new architecture. In regards to the language, it’d be very useful to learn basic German, just to get around in the city.