Developing Social Work Education in Mozambique in Collaboration with Finnish Institutions

In 2008 University of Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique will offer a new Bachelor Programme in Social Work. From the 1990's there has been professional training in this field but not in the higher education sub-sector. This study deals with social work education in Mozambique and its respective cooperation with Finnish partners primarily concentrating on the era between 2004 and 2007 i.e. the cooperation time period under the North – South Higher Education Network Programme. This study was reasoned as an analysis of an existing cooperation. The cooperation is between Pirkanmaa University of Applied Sciences (PIRAMK) and University of Tampere (UTA) from Finland and Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MMAS) and University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) from Mozambique. The overall aim of the cooperation is to support the development of social work education in Mozambique. The activities in cooperation focus on reciprocal student and teaching exchange and practical training. Furthermore Universities are cooperating in the planning of higher education of social work at the University of Eduardo Mondlane. The overall focus of the study is how this cooperation can support social work education in Mozambique and how this cooperation will affect the Social Work Bachelor Programme. This study is a qualitative case study; data collection was performed during three months of exchange studies in Mozambique under the guidance of Eduardo Mondlane University. When collecting the data the semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis and to some extent field observation were used. The analysing method of the empirical evidence is qualitative thematic interpretation of interviews and textual material. Research findings are examined in relation to the recent scientific discussion and debate concerning the research area; social work education in Africa and respective development cooperation. The results of the study show that the cooperation has had an important contribution to the social work education in Mozambique. Overall, the cooperation has been valued highly and experiences have been positive. The major challenges have been the language barrier and the ambiguity in the roles of different partners. The main recommendation for cooperation practices is further development of language skills and clarification of roles and responsibilities of each partner. Finland’s main contributions to the Bachelor Programme are support in curriculum development, support in institutional capacity building and cooperation in producing teaching materials. Further funding is needed in order to complete the needs of beneficiaries, such as degree studies for Mozambicans and research cooperation between universities. Keywords: Mozambique, Social Work, Higher Education, North – South Higher Education Network Programme, Development Cooperatio