The Royal Scottish Forestry Society and Richard Davidson are delighted to announce the launch of the RSFS Davidson Bursaries. Two new awards are available for students at SRUC Barony College (Dumfries and Galloway) and the Scottish School of Forestry, Inverness College UHI respectively.
The RSFS Davidson Bursary for Barony College is aimed at those students entering the Advanced Certificate in Forestry. The student will already have a Certificate in Forestry or appropriate experience in other employment sectors and wishes to progress to the next level.
The RSFS Davidson Bursary at UHI will be awarded to a Year 3 student and covers years 3 and 4 of their BSc degree.
In both cases, the purpose of the bursary is to support those changing career into forestry. The award of the bursary is competitive and will be managed by RSFS. These are the first awards to be made annually from the newly-established RSFS Education Fund created to support its educational activities across the sector.
Nander Robertson, President of RSFS noted: “The RSFS prides itself on encompassing all aspects of forestry and trees in Scotland and supporting the broad range of people involved with them. These new bursaries are the realisation of a longstanding ambition of the Society to return to its roots in forestry education”.
Richard Davidson is a member of RSFS and a forest owner, he said: “I’m delighted to support these bursaries. Since acquiring my first forest in 2003, I have become a real advocate of forestry and value the expertise of the foresters. Through the RSFS I have become aware of the need for more people to enter the profession and the value of them coming from a range of backgrounds.”
Amanda Bryan, Head of the Scottish School of Forestry and Programme Leader, said “Here at UHI we are absolutely delighted to be working with RSFS to provide the RSFS Davidson Bursary for one of our Degree level students. This very generous award will ease the financial burden of studying for a degree, particularly for those mature students who have chosen forestry as their second career.”
Martyn Davies, Senior Forester at SRUC’s Barony campus said “This is a fantastic opportunity for a student studying the Advanced Certificate in Forestry & Arboriculture to access financial aid, while allowing important networking to take place with the Royal Scottish Forestry Society. The forestry and timber technology industry remains essential to the economy, especially in these current times. The support we offer as an industry to new entrants will have lasting impacts on our work force.”
Royal Scottish Forestry Society (RSFS) is the forestry education and conservation charity (registered in Scotland registration number SC002058) and owns Cashel Forest Trust (a charity registered in Scotland registration number SC024112).
The RSFS was founded in 1854 and continues to deliver forestry education through several channels
including:
• Around 20 Regional Study Days each year;
• Annual 3-day Study Tour;
• Scottish Forestry, our publication;
• Sponsorship of educational prizes and bursaries;
• Monitor Woods Scheme
• Cashel Forest Trust owns Cashel Farm on East Loch Lomondside which operates a Visitor Centre, and Native Woodland management site.
For further information about RSFS, please visit rsfs.org.uk and Cashel, please visit cashel.org.uk.
Richard Davidson is member of RSFS and a forest owner. An investment manager of 30 years’ experience, he was formerly fund manager of Gresham House’s Forestry fund. He had also been a partner at Lansdowne Partners, prior to which he was chief European equity strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Prospective students can find more information about the courses here:
SRUC Barony
https://www.sruc.ac.uk/courses/85/forestry_advanced_certificate_arboriculture_or_forest_mechanisation
Scottish School of Forestry, Inverness College UHI
https://www.inverness.uhi.ac.uk/courses/bsc-hons-forest-management/
The course directors can give more information on applying for the bursaries.
