Welcome to the Scottish School of Forestry

Information for Higher Education students

The Scottish School of Forestry (SSF) is the country’s only forestry and arboriculture training provider delivering both further education and higher education programmes within its own practical training environment. Our campus at Balloch near Inverness lies around 5 miles from the main Inverness College UHI campus and consists of modern classroom spaces, a forestry yard and buildings and an area of woodland for practical work. Facilities for students include a canteen, a drying room with lockers and a learning resource centre which holds a library and computers.

We have a teaching team of 12 full and part time lecturers, a technician and a range of support staff. We also have access to lecturers from other teams within the College who provide specialist input to our courses from other subject areas. Students can also access other student support services including guidance, counselling and additional support with study skills.

Studying Rural Skills, Forestry and Arboriculture at SSF provides you with industry recognised qualifications and skills that will secure you employment in a sector that is growing and has recognised workforce shortages.

Introduction to your programme

At SSF we offer both Forestry and Arboriculture and Urban Forestry HNC/Ds leading on to a BSc Hons in Forest Management. You may be studying with us full time or part time, face to face or via distance learning (possibly initially through the PDA Forestry). These courses are largely academic in nature but involve learning practical survey techniques, tree climbing for Arb students and lots of field visits to ensure you understand current industry practice. We use a lot of online resources which you will access through our online Virtual Learning Environment or VLE (Brightspace). You may even receive some of your lectures online via the VLE. Most of your assessments are ‘open book’ and report based and often mirror the type of work you would be expected to undertake in industry. There are however a small number of closed book exams.

Unless you have enrolled as a part time student (e.g. on the PDA Forestry) your course is classed as full time and will usually involve either three or four days in College per week. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we are working through arrangements for how these courses will run during this academic year. We hope to confirm these arrangements shortly. You will be able to download your course timetable from the College website as soon as it becomes available.

Normally Induction takes place in the first week of September. Semester 1 runs for 17 weeks between early September and late January (there is a 1 week October break and a 2 week Christmas holiday). Semester 2 runs for 17 weeks between late January and mid June (there is a 2 week Easter holiday).

It is also important to understand that we take health and safety very seriously at the Scottish School of Forestry. We must all take responsibility for our own safety and that of our colleagues in an environment where we will be around equipment and machinery. Being under the influence of alcohol or drugs (including prescription medications) which may affect your ability to work and study is not acceptable from a health and safety perspective. If you are taking prescription medications which make you drowsy or impact your perceptions in any way you must inform your Personal Academic Tutor.

 Preparing for Your Mid-Year Placement

All of our forestry students are expected to complete a mid-year industry placement between their first and second year of study which helps reinforce your learning. Our students can get placements all over the UK with forest management companies, tree nurseries, tree surveyors, estates or working for public sector forestry organisations. There are also opportunities for overseas work experience and study during this year. In Semester 1 there is an opportunity to meet some potential mid-year employers, who start to seek applications for mid-year posts shortly after the Christmas break. Start thinking about this now and research possible employers that you might be interested to work with.

Useful contacts:

Questions about your application or starting: admissions.ic@uhi.ac.uk

Questions about funding: funding.ic@uhi.ac.uk

Questions about support available to you: studentsupport.ic@uhi.ac.uk