Building permanent partnerships with Papua New Guinea
Students from the University of Papua New Guinea
What began as a single semester academic mentoring visit has developed into an ongoing partnership between Monash and the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) to enhance the training of social workers in the island nation.
Members of the Department of Social Work will this month return to UPNG to continue helping redevelop and modernise the University's social work program to address the needs of the country, which is troubled by violence, HIV infection, limited social welfare resources and a growing economic divide.
The partnership began in 2010 as an academic mentoring program sponsored by the Group of Eight and AusAID.
The initial program called for academics in social work, political science, journalism and computer science to spend a semester working with their counterparts at UPNG. However the Monash team, which includes Dr Catherine Flynn, Dr Kerry Brydon and Dr Robyn Mason, saw the program as an opportunity to develop a relationship with UPNG academics.
Dr Flynn, who will this month make her fourth visit to UPNG, said the partnership had already brought significant change to the UPNG campus.
"When we first visited UPNG we realised there was a chance to make a bigger impact than could be accomplished in a fly-in-fly-out relationship," Dr Flynn said.
"With the support of Dr Mike Cookson, ANU, who is coordinating the mentoring program, head of the social work department Professor Margaret Alston and former Dean of MNHS Steve Wesselingh, we have been able to take a longer term view and push the partnership to a point where we can begin to make a bigger impact on the ground.
"We have been able to get modern text books into the student library and help UPNG staff develop relationships with publishing houses. We are developing joint Monash-UPNG pathways to PhD studies. Our experts in field work are working to help students get better workplace experience, and we are creating opportunities for joint research and joint publications."
The Monash team, together with their counterparts at UPNG, are also pursuing opportunities for Australian social work graduates to complete volunteer work at UPNG.
The partnership is expected to continue over the next five years.