Remark at the Opening Ceremony of ISUSW 2021

Gao Jianguo
Professor, Department of Social Work
Shandong University

Dear Colleagues and students,

It's our great pleasure for coming together to hold the 2021 international summer university, discuss online professional services and carry the broader vision for the future. There are three issues I would like to share at this moment:

The firstly, the significance of the theme for this summer university. We can only find few information on the Internet about online social work practice and practitioners. Many thanks to 10 professors for their lectures of online social work. Professors and students will have an in-depth exploration on the advantages and limitations of online practice and practitioners during the SU.

The second issue, is about the participation of Shandong University in the summer university consortium. The international summer university consortium was launched by the University of Applied Science and Arts Western Switzerland in 2009, and the Consortium Agreement was officially signed by the nine universities in 2017. Recommended by Professor Deborah O'Connor, at UBC in Canada, students of SDU attended the third summer university in Lausanne in 2012. It is a great honor for the faculty and students from SDU to have a valuable exchange with all consortium partners. They had attended summer universities in Lausanne (for three times), Vancouver, Hong Kong and Jerusalem. We deeply appreciated all consortium partners for your kind reception. In 2015, SDU hosted the 6th summer university in China. Thanks for the trust of consortium partners, we organize the 12th summer university this year, and become the second institution to undertake the SU for the second time. Our proposal for SU 2021 that was referred to the Steering Committee meeting in Cochin in 2019, was to hold an on wheels summer university into three campuses of SDU located in three beautiful cities of Shandong Province. Nevertheless, this time we have to hold an online summer university. My colleagues at SDU and I are willing to continue to host summer university in future to realize the original ideal.

The thirdly, thanks to Professor WANG Duu-Chiang and students of Tunghai University in Taiwan for accepting our invitation to attend the summer university as guest participants. Tunghai University had the earliest master's and doctoral programs of social work in Taiwan. Four PhD students from Tunghai University will join this summer university; Professor Mei Lin Liu of Soochow University in Taiwan will offer lecture. Professors and students of the Summer University can understand the diversified social work practice and educational system on both sides of the Straits during this occasion.

Finally, I wish the summer university a success, and all the faculty and students a happy mind. Hope everything goes your way in this summer university.