The School of Sociology of CCNU hosted and met with the delegation from Rutgers University’s School of Social Work in the afternoon of March 7, 2017 at the school’s meeting room. The Rutgers delegation consisted of Prof. Catheryn Potter, Dean of School of Social Work, and Prof. Chien-Chung Huang, Director of Huamin Research Center. Attendees from CCNU’s School of Sociology included: Prof. Darrell Irwin, Dean of School of Sociology; Prof. Wan Rende, Vice-Dean of Teaching Affairs; Prof. Zheng Guanghuai, Head of Department of Social Work; Prof. Yang Sheng Yong, social work professor; Dr. Li Xueyan, lecturer of social work; Miss Zhou Xiaofan, lab staff; Mr. Chen Zhengyu, Dean’s Assistant; Ms. Wang Ling, Secretary-General of Wuhan Boya Social Work Service Center.
At the beginning of the meeting, Dean Irwin extended his warm welcome to Dean Potter and Director Huang, and introduced CCNU’s School of Sociology and its recent achievement to them, including its recent ranking with its MSW program ranked 2nd in China, its research output in 2016, its overseas partnership as well as 4 professors visiting abroad.
After hearing Dean Irwin’s introduction, Dean Potter also introduced Rutgers’ School of Social Work. Rutgers’ social work school currently has about 60 teachers and 1800 students, and covers social work education in both undergraduate and graduate levels, providing a wide range of social work programs including Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work, Doctor of Social Work, as well as Ph.D. in Social Work. Their research areas cover health, criminal justice, juvenile justice, child welfare, social policy, substance abuse, etc. They have 4 major research centers, i.e., Huamin Research Center, Center on Violence Against Women and Children, Center for Gambling Studies, and The Center for Prevention Science. Rutgers’ social work school has overseas partnerships all over the world, including countries like Romania, Kenya, Israel, China, Portugal, etc., and their faculty and students have rich overseas visit or study experience. Being located in New Jersey, Rutgers is also one of the most diverse universities in US.
Prof. Wan Rende introduced the development of social work education in China, pointing out there is still a high demand for social work professionals in China, especially high-caliber talents with higher education degrees, as Chinese government plans to have 1.45 million social workers by 2020, while the number at the end of 2016 was still just half of it. As one of the first schools in China to initiate a MSW degree program, CCNU’s School of Sociology would like to have more cooperation with Rutgers in MSW education, especially with regard to student exchange. As a featured school of internationalization at CCNU, the university has a higher expectation for School of Sociology in the number of students going abroad.
Prof. Zheng Guanghuai pointed out three major problems of MSW education in China: 1. The MSW education in China is focused more on localization, and not internationalized enough; 2. MSW education in China doesn’t have enough features or specializations; 3. Not many MSW students want to work as social workers or work in social work related areas after graduation. To address those problems, Prof. Zheng suggested CCNU collaborate with Rutgers and import high-caliber overseas education resources such as online courses from Rutgers’ School of Social Work, and make CCNU’s MSW program more internationalized. Prof. Zheng suggested Rutgers’ Center for Global Social Work can play an important role in this; Prof. Zheng also suggested CCNU’s Sociology School find common ground in some specific areas in social work education and research to conduct deeper cooperation with Rutgers, thus to build and enhance specializations of CCNU’s MSW program; Prof. Zheng also suggested a seminar course in global social work can be hosted at CCNU in the summer, taught by both Rutgers and CCNU professors and attended by students from both universities.
In response to Prof. Zheng’s suggestions, Dean Potter said it was possible for Rutgers professors to co-teach courses with CCNU professors, or have CCNU students take online courses from Rutgers, but more details on this required more discussion afterwards. As for research cooperation, Dean Potter said it mainly depended on the willingness of individual professors, and if they can find the right match in their research areas, further cooperation can be discussed between individual professors. As for sending Rutgers students to the seminar course in the Summer, Dean Potter said the main obstacle was the cost, as the trip to China was too expensive for some students. Dean Potter also discussed in more details with Prof. Zheng about the recognition of course credits taken online from Rutgers.
Director Huang then introduced Huamin Research Center and presented two of the recent projects that’s conducted by Huamin Research Center. The Huamin Research Center was established in 2012 through collaboration between the Huamin Charity Foundation and Rutgers University, and is based out of Rutgers School of Social Work. The Center’s mission is to develop and disseminate knowledge through research and exchange that promotes professional development of nonprofit organizations and strengthens individual, family, and community well-being in China. The Center cooperates with a number of major Chinese and American universities and research institutions and has a strong network of partners. In addition, the Center provides fellowships to doctoral and master’s degree students who are studying nonprofit and social welfare issues in China. Each year the Center hosts several Chinese visiting scholars. After explaining the mission of the Center, Prof. Huang introduced the two projects they did at the center, one was about the transparency of Chinese non-profitable organizations and their distribution of resources, the other was about immigration and child development. Prof. Zheng and Prof. Yang Shengyong discussed the possibilities of cooperation with Prof. Huang in the research of left-behind children and immigrant children.
Ms. Wang Ling then did a presentation to introduce Boya Social Work Service Center. The biggest feature of the center is that it’s built mainly by the faculty of School of Sociology of CCNU and is based within the school. All the social work faculty at the school serve as supervisors for the center, and the center provides a platform for the school’s social work students to conduct internships. It combines social work service with social work talent training.
Prof. Huang also introduced Rutgers’ study abroad program, which provided Chinese students opportunities to attend classes at Rutgers and tour around the city for 3 weeks. The school of Sociology assigned Zhou Xiaofan to find more information and follow up on this program with Rutgers.
Dean Irwin reviewed the MOU signed by CCNU and Rutgers in May 2016, and reminded Dean Potter that the responsible coordinator for CCNU for purposes of ministering the terms of this MOU should be changed to Mr. GAO Zhuoxian, as Mr. Gao is the new director of CCNU’s Office of International Cooperation and Exchanges.
The Rutgers delegation stayed in Wuhan on the night of March 7, and left on March 8. More cooperation between two schools will be discussed in the future.
