Amman- 4 July 2019
From 27th until 28th of June Prof. Dr. Alaaldeen Al-Halhouli, Dean of the School of Applied Humanities and Languages (SAHL) and Dr. Rawan Ibrahim, Exchange Coordinator at the Department Social Work at the German Jordanian University (GJU) joined the annual Network Meeting at UAS Frankfurt.
The hosting professor Dr. Ute Straub welcomed 13 participants from GJU’s partner universities representing their Social work Departments, among others Network head Dr. Jochen Pleines and GJU’s future Vice-president for International Affairs Prof. Dr. Ralf Roßkopf from Fachhochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS).
The challenges of SAHL were discussed in a friendly and supportive environment with the German partners. Both programs Professional Diploma and the Master Social Work are still young disciplines at GJU, so it was decided that study plans will be evaluated by the end of the 1st student cohort, field training needs to be improved and extended, and the School of Applied Humanities and Languages aims to be accredited next year.
Dr. Rawan Ibrahim is in constant exchange with her German counterparts such as Prof. Dr. Vathsala Aithal from FHWS to jointly develop the field training, as it is the heart of Social Work.
She is also engaged in Erasmus Plus projects with Prof. Dr. Sigrid James at University Kassel and the University of Oxford inviting a German Ph.D. student to teach at SAHL. Magnus Frampton and Dr. Jochen Pleines plan to advertise the publication “English for Social Work: A bilingual terminology handbook” more and spread it to Social Work Departments at other universities in the Arab world.
The Dean encouraged the Network members to participate in joint calls and publications with GJU as the MA program will be recognized more internationally with a higher number and quality of publications.
As an outcome of the Network meeting, the idea of organizing a conference at GJU in October 2020 related to the Topic of the Year “Migration and Refugees” was established.