Abstract:

Faculty of Forestry Sciences in Tirana has adapted its curricula to the Bologna processes since 2005 related to B.Sc. study programs and since 2009 related to the M.Sc. study programs.
The Faculty offer today for around 1000 students in the fulltime study system, two B.Sc. and two M.Sc. study programs in both Department of Forestry and Department of Wood Industry.
After two generations of students have been graduated both Departments started 2011 a process of reviewing of curricula of both B.Sc. study programs aiming first to improve the problematic faced in 6 years of experience both by the students and the academic staff and secondly to adapt the B.Sc. curricula to the changes occurred during the period 2005 – 2011 in the job market and to the important political processes in the forest sector, where the property rights on about 52% of the forest area of the country have been transferred from the state to the local government units.
We started the reviewing process through a survey with all interest groups including, students and academic staff of both departments, employers (albanian forest service, local government units, logging industry, wood industry, NGOs, etc) and former graduate students. The findings as expected showed a problematic started with more than 37 exams in three years of study, much more theory related teaching hours than practice, too much direct teaching hours in some subjects than independent work of the students, etc.
There was a common request from students and former graduates to increase the direct teaching hours for English and Informatics. Employers and former graduates based on their job experiences proposed the inclusion in the curricula of new teaching subjects related to community forestry, ecotourism, community forest enterprises, interior and furniture design.
The academic staff under the consultancy of a foreign experienced professor responded to the results of the survey through the improvement of all problematic mentioned above. In the next academic year both departments will start with B.Sc. curricula including max. 26 exams, more equilibrated theory/practice direct teaching hours and more independent work for he students.
The need for new subjects to adapt to the political changes in the sector and changes in the job market we responded with a new professional master study in each of the Departments of the faculty related to aspects of community forestry and ecotourism in the Department of Forestry and related to aspects of interior and furniture design in the Department of Wood Industry.

Keywords:

Curricula development, group of interests, job market, political processes.