News & Events

Hosted by the China and Global Development Network, the Roundtable entitled, “Asian Perspective for Social Work Education” was successfully organized on 9th September 2022. The Roundtable attracted over 160 participants from 26 countries or regions including Australia, Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong SAR, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Thailand, and Uzbekistan.

The Roundtable aimed to provide an online platform for an updated discussion of social work education from Asian societies. Seven speakers, namely Prof. Angelina YUEN-TSANG and Dr Ben Hok Bun KU from Hong Kong, Prof. Gulmira ABDIRAIYMOVA from Kazakhstan, Dr Nurzyinat TOKTORBEKOVA from Kyrgyzstan, Dr Auschala CHALAYONNAVIN from Thailand, Dr Abdukhamit BAZAROV from Uzbekistan and Dr Thi Thai Lan NGUYEN from Vietnam shared their valuable insights on the following topics:

• Transformative Social Work Education in China: Experiences of a Joint MSW Programme
• Increasing Child Self-esteem: Training and Potential Development for Vulnerable Thai Youth
• Development of Social Work Education in Vietnam: The Issues of Indigenization and Authentication in the Past Two Decades
• Public Perception of Social Work and Social Workers in Kazakhstan
• Some Aspects of the Provision of Social Services and Social Work in Uzbekistan
• Experience in the Development of Social Work in Kyrgyzstan

Prof. Eric Wing Hong CHUI, Head of the Department of Applied Social Sciences and Dr David ROSE, President of Asian and Pacific Association for Social Work Education were the respondents. The Roundtable was engaging with inspiring discussions amongst the speakers, respondents and participants on various topics such as the roles of practitioners and service users, the competency framework and the curriculum design in the social work education.

Prof. CHUI concluded with ‘3Cs’, “Complicated, Challenges and Collaboration.” The development of social work education is ‘C’omplicated and unique in the context of political, social, cultural and economic resources. The development is also full of ‘C’hallenges such as fighting for resources and fulfilling the standards and criteria of social work. The last ‘C’ is ‘C'ollaboration — to call for actions in networking and sharing of experiences and resources in facing the complicated issues and challenges ahead, “Actions speak louder than words.”