EJP SOIL report on soil science in higher education in Europe

The European Joint Partnership “ Towards climate smart sustainable management of agricultural soils” (EJP SOIL) is a European 5-year effort to strengthen research capacity and new knowledge on climate adaptation and mitigation for agricultural soils.  Within WP5, the objective of Task 5.1 is to provide a synthesis on the current state of soil science in European Higher Education (HE). This was done through a survey to 274 HE institutions in Europe. A total of 86 complete answers were received where every EJP SOIL country was represented with at least one response. Preliminary results showed that only 10% of the HE institutions had a dedicated soil science department. The majority of soil science is embedded in a department where environmental sciences, agricultural sciences and earth sciences are the main academic topics. Respondents reported an increased enrolment at BSc, and no change for MSc and PhD. Mixed trends could be seen for specific countries and universities, with both increases and decreases in student enrolment. Traditional lecture based teaching dominated soil science teaching and learning activities, both at BSc and MSc levels. However, results suggested that study programs are evolving to include more generic competences, as well as active learning methods (e.g. problem-based learning, case studies). Still, at BSc level the proportion of courses that did not have any computer/modelling component was about 1/3. Top 3 priorities for internationalisation were attracting students from abroad, providing more opportunities to send students abroad and developing strategic research partnerships. Finally, respondents’ perception was that job opportunities for students have mainly increased in the past ten years.