The study programme of forest sciences was established at the University of Freiburg in 1920 - the main reason named for the choice of Freiburg was the diversity of forests around the city, which would serve for leaming in the forests as well as for research. These forests today mostly belong to the City of Freiburg and the State of Baden-Württemberg. The forests closest to the university may be accessed on foot, by bicycle or tram. The forests around Freiburg are suitable for leaming experiences in virtually all subjects of the forest related study programmes and have been extensively used all the time. Good relationships have been maintained between the staff of the forest management and the teaching personnel of the university. lt is concluded that for in-forest leaming it does not necessarily need university owned forests. Examples for personal experience of the author as student and as teacher are presented, including courses from the fields of forest utilization, forest work science and forest road construction as well as the ESPRO (First-Semester-Project).

A Helsinki University field course 'Forest and peatland ecology', organised in June 2017, was studied using qualitative text analysis of students' learning diaries as a main source of data. Students' self-regulative knowledge was explored and found rather limited which is in line with some earlier literature. Teaching methods during the course were evaluated very positively by students. One of the main results was that the more activating teaching methods were perceived more positively. Learning diaries included a few negative evaluations and these can be seen as a valuable source of feedback. lt is concluded that the field course is an extremely relevant method in order to achieve professional knowledge in forest sciences. The recommendations for future teaching planning are that more emphasis should be put on communicating learning aims, modern learning technology, and finally, critical self-regulation knowledge.