A two-year project Finnish-Chinese Collaboration for Doctoral Studies in Social Work (FCSW) aims at establishing a long-term collaboration in social work doctoral education between Finland and China. The specific aim is to enhance doctoral education in China and internationalise Finnish social work education and research. The main project activity is to develop a common study module in comparative research and organise student and teacher exchanges.

The government in China is currently placing emphasis on developing social work. Despite the vast training at the Bachelor and Master’s levels, there is currently no doctoral training in social work in China. On the other hand, Finnish universities have a long experience in organising social work doctoral education in national collaboration. Therefore the Chinese partner places importance in collaborating with the Finnish Universities.

The collaboration offers unique opportunities for researching the development of social work and the organizing of the service system in the most populous country in the world. The collaboration also strengthens the use of the comparative research methods in social work research.

The project partners include the Sosnet member universities that are the University of Lapland, the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Helsinki, the University of Jyväskylä, the University of Tampere and the University of Turku. The Chinese partner is Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (GSCASS). The two-year project comes to an end in 2015.

The project is funded by the Asian Network Programme in CIMO.

More information:

Professor Anneli Pohjola
anneli.pohjola (at) ulapland.fi
Tel. +358 40 553 7498

Chief of Education Sanna Lähteinen
sanna.lahteinen (at) ulapland.fi
Tel. +358 40 849 3033

www.sosnet.fi