BUSSW Lends Social Policy Expertise to New Doctoral Program in Ethiopia

When the University of Gondar, Ethiopia launched its doctoral social work program in 2017, it was one of only a handful of graduate social work programs nationwide. Social work is a growing, but relatively new, profession in Ethiopia, and its pioneers are currently building educational frameworks that will support the first wave of highly trained social work practitioners and educators in the country.

To bridge the gap between interested students and the local scarcity of PhD-level professionals, University of Gondar reached out to BUSSW to offer faculty a Visiting Professor position teaching the doctoral course, “Social Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation.” Professor and Social Policy Welfare Chair Mary Collins accepted the challenge.

Collins spent several weeks in the summer of 2018 in Ethiopia working closely with U Gondar’s first cohort of doctoral social work students, who Collins says are “destined to be key faculty members [in leading] the development of social work in Ethiopia.” Class discussions on how American concepts and models would and would not apply in Ethiopia created a dynamic learning environment, and students were eager to contextualize Collins’ theories within Ethiopian culture and society. “There were rich discussions of the reasons for similarities and differences,” Collins said about the two countries’ approaches to policy.

The social policy course was successfully brought to completion in September, and Collins, now back in Boston, is already making plans to return to the University of Gondar, promising a continued relationship between BUSSW and Gondar’s social work community.