CBU organized courses I attended previously - Part 2

The second CBU organized course I attended was held in Russia. That was a great experience for all of us, especially for foreign students which have heard and they were told a lot about Russia, but unfortunately had a lucky chance to visit the neighboring country, but that was the exciting opportunity we could not missed. St-Petersburg Forestry Technical Academy was hosting the CBU intensive course "Forestry and forest industry in Russia". Besides diverse study programme we had spare time to hang out in the center even though the weather was cold enough (about -15C), but the city center was already nicely decorated for New Year and Christmas celebrations. We had saved some spare time to visit pubs along Nevsky Prospect and to taste delicious beer brewed in Saint Petersburg.

But lets come back to studies ))) We had a well planned combination of outdoor and indoor sessions. The rage of lecture themes have varied a lot and include: biodiversity conversation, road construction and forestry planning, forest inventory in Russia and forestry law. Besides that we had students' presentations part and I did not stayed aside, I did present the results on a study "Heterobasidion spp. infections allocation and its causes in Russian Karelia".

Apart from lecture and presentation we had an opportunity to visit entomological and hunting museum of Academy as well as incredible botanical garden with huge collection of flora from different climatic zones. Additionally we had excursion to the production unit of non-wood forestry product enterprise specializing on berry processing and packaging, however due to bad climatic conditions the travel there and back was twice longer than it was planned, but otherwise the hosting institution providing good meal and interesting excursion there.

The housing was organized for us in dormitory, however in some respect I could feel the Soviet echo in there (common showers and toilets in the main corridor) and for the foreigners who are not aware of past Russian history were slightly shocked.

Nevertheless we had great experience in Saint Petersburg and I'm looking forward to visit this wonderful city and Forestry Academy again.

CBU organized courses I attended previously - Part 1

Based on my previous studying experience in CBU I would like to share with you the information which might be interesting and useful in terms of diverse academic experience. CBU provides opportunities for students to attend the courses with special emphasis on cross-border partnership in different locations, besides the list of general courses which you can choose at your faculty.
Thus, at the time I have started my studies in CBU we had intensive course organized at Mekrijärvi research Station (about 70 km from Joensuu) during the first week, the place and timing of the course was chosen in my opinion very properly taken into account the fact that some of the participants had come to Finland to study forestry issues for a very first time and the knowledge of English language for some of us was the biggest challenge to overcome at that time. The course was held under the title "Forestry and bioenergy in NE Europe with special reference to sustainability" providing the understanding and concept of forestry operations between the Nordic countries and Russia, as an example of Eastern Europe country. We were fortunate that course organizers were able to invite lecturers from different institutions (University of Joensuu, Helsinki University, Saint-Petersburg Forestry Technical Academy, European Forestry Institute, Petrozavodsk State University) with different backgrounds and perspectives to the topics we were studying. To summarise the first week it was aimed to build the understanding of the forestry concept and bioenergy development in Finland and Russia. For second week of introductory course we moved to Forestry Faculty of University of Joensuu, currently named as University of Eastern Finland. During second week we had opportunity to perform our own presentations on chosen theme with discussion in groups including teachers and students. Many of us had first experience with writing SWOT-analysis. In case some of you are doubting with SWOT term please ask and I will try to explain the meaning of that. Besides that we had a lot of opportunities to visit different companies working in forestry field and particularly in bioenergy know-how. Among the institutions and companies we visited were Tulikivi, John Deere, Eno municipality, The Finnish Forest Research Institute, WENET, Science Park and others.
Many of us agreed that importance of introductory course was tremendous both in terms of understanding of studied issues in from different perspectives as well as social component of the course.