Remark at the Opening Ceremony of ISUSW 2021

Sophie Tapparel
General Secretary of the ISUSW Consortium
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland

Dear Sir Madam in your qualities and functions

Dear colleagues / and attending students

As General Secretary of the consortium International Summer University in Social Work, I am delighted to be connected with all of you today. It means that despite the pandemic and the travel restrictions associated with it, we can ensure the continuity of this short-term international program.

I would therefore like to thank the Department of Social Work at Shandong Universityfor organizing the 12th edition of the International Summer School in Social Work.

I would especially like to thank Prof. Gao for the fruitful collaboration we have had through out this year. I also thank Dr. Sun and Jack for all their support in the organization of this edition. Finally, I thank all the team from Shandong University who participated in this organization but have not yet had the opportunity to meet.

Due to the pandemic, the Shandong University was constrained to organize an online edition. I don't hide the fact that scheduling an online edition with participants from all over the world was a constant challenge. I think that we were able to face it by creating two zones: one for students from Shandong University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Western Sydney University, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences and Tunghai University, and another one for students from the University of California, Los Angeles, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Western Switzerland.

I am deeply convinced that the main goals of the ISUSW Consortium – which are to promote scientific exchanges between participants from all over the world and to engage critically with global issues concerning social work theories and practices– will also be achieved this year. And this for three reasons.

Firstly, the theme of ISUSW 21 dealing with online social work practice and practitioners is directly related to what we have experienced world wide for more than one year. It is therefore of the utmost relevance.

Secondly, the proposed program seems very promising. We will indeed have the great privilege to listen to nine lectures given by expert professors on this theme. These professors come from the Shandong University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Western Sydney University, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, the University of California, Los Angeles, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Western Switzerland, Minzu University of China, and Soochow University.

Thirdly, the 40 attending students will have the opportunity to meet and discuss, integrate and critically debate the content of lectures and the issues raised through their own experience of online social work during the three workshops organized for them. They will also have the chance to discuss through an exchange forum held on Microsoft Teams Tool.

Let me finish by wishing all of you pleasant and fruitful exchanges in the coming ten days.